California update

Redistricting poses challenge to candidates pondering a 2012 run. Politicians preparing to run by meeting voters and raising funds could find themselves campaigning in a district with far different boundaries after a citizens panel redraws Assembly, state Senate and congressional maps.

Cutting public pensions now won't save California

Here are the dollar data on the state's pension costs: For the next fiscal year, pension payments out of the $85-billion general fund are slated to total $3.7 billion. Of that, $2.4 billion is earmarked for state employees (CalPERS). The other $1.3 billion is for teachers (CalSTRS). An additional $1.8-billion payment to CalPERS will come from special funds that don't figure in the deficit. 

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Public pensions in California — state and especially local — not only are unsustainable fiscally, they're doomed politically. There's a lot of pension envy by private sector workers who have been stripped of the retirement benefits they once had banked on. Why, they ask, should they contribute tax money for a level of pension generosity denied them? 

When tax talks between Brown and Senate Republicans collapsed, the governor quickly unveiled his own pension ideas. Too bad for Republicans. If they had negotiated a deal, the credit for any pension reform could have been all theirs. 

Brown didn't go far enough for Republicans and reformers. He went too far for unions. Actually, he probably went about the right distance, considering the stormy political climate. There's still much, after all, to be negotiated. 

The governor's proposals would apply to state and local employees alike. It's a long list, but three of the more significant proposals would: 

-- Cap pensions at $106,000 annually. The cap would rise for retirees not eligible for Social Security. 

"We think that's a very reasonable pension, a very adequate amount for people to live a fine life on," says Brown's veteran labor director, Marty Morgenstern. "Beyond that, we think it's excessive." 

Tell that to some retired city managers, police chiefs and university administrators, speaking of excessive. 

-- Prohibit pension "spiking" by basing benefits only on base wages — no overtime or unused vacation — during the three highest consecutive earning years. State pensions now are pegged to a three-year average, but many local governments calculate retirements on the single highest year. 

-- Offer employees a "hybrid" system of reduced pension pay combined with a 401(k)-type plan that they could cart with them to a private-sector job. 

Republicans insist on making a hybrid system mandatory. Brown's proposal "assumes public employees will volunteer for lower benefits, which ignores reality," asserts Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga. 

"We're far from locked in concrete," Morgenstern says. 

The biggest criticism of Brown's plan is that the key changes would affect only new employees.

Morgenstern replies that altering prospective benefits for current workers is legally questionable. "We could say we're going to do that and win some political points and wind up in courts forever," he says. "It's a long shot." 

But it's a shot Brown should take. There would be big budget benefits in the future, even if absolutely none right now.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Tuesday requiring the state to obtain a third of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar and geothermal power by 2020, among the most ambitious such laws in the nation.

California Supreme Court Slaps Down Pension Reform

No good reform deed will go unpunished

Congratulations Los Angeles Times reporters