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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Too Much Pension News (and Some Useful Data)

The Regents Committee on Compliance and Audit is meeting via teleconference on Nov. 7 in advance of the general Regents meeting the following week. We will post the audio when it becomes available.

The agenda for the full Regents meeting has not been posted yet, but the Regents are likely to have some discussion related to the governor’s pension proposals.

Included in the Committee’s agenda is an audit of the pension plan. Below is a data summary taken from that audit. The full document is at:

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regmeet/nov11/a5attach4.pdf

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Summary statement for year ended June 30, 2011

Net assets $41.9 billion

Net investment gain $7.6 billion

Contributions $1.8 billion

Benefit payments (excluding member withdrawals and lump-sum cashouts) $1.8 billion

Plan administrative and other expenses $31.1 million

Active Membership

Senate Faculty and Non-Faculty Academics 22,991 members

Management/Senior Professional 8,842 members

Professional/Support Staff 83,735 members

Total 115,568 members

Average Annual Salary

Senate Faculty $117,972

Non-Faculty Academics $75,762

Management/Senior Professional $120,564

Professional/Support Staff $61,405

Average Age

Senate Faculty 50 years

Non-Faculty Academics 44 years

Management/Senior Professional 50 years

Professional/Support Staff 43 years

Inactive Membership/Other

Total 60,903 members

Retiree Membership

Faculty 5,187 retirees

Management/Senior Professional 7,049 retirees

Professional/Support Staff 35,007 retirees

Total 47,243 retirees

Average Retirement Age

Faculty 64 years

Management/Senior Professional 60 years

Professional/Support Staff 59 years

Average Service Credit at Retirement

Faculty 26 years

Management/Senior Professional 22 years

Professional/Support Staff 20 years

Average Annual UCRP Income

Faculty $72,809

Management/Senior Professional $52,834

Professional/Support Staff $28,730

Survivor/Beneficiary 6,969 recipients

Disabled 2,084 recipients

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There is much additional pension news floating around. Proponents of stricter pension changes than the governor is proposing have started the process of filing two initiatives. You can find them at:

http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/initiatives/pdfs/i1007_11-0064_(pension_reform_v2).pdf

and

http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/initiatives/pdfs/i1006_11-0063_(pension_reform_v1).pdf

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From Calpensions.com today comes:

…This time the group, now led by Dan Pellissier, raised $250,000 for polling and legal experts before filing initiatives designed to withstand court challenges and quickly cut government pension costs, particularly important for some struggling cities. He said the next step is to raise about $3 million, enough to pay for a drive to gather 1.3 million voter signatures and provide a cushion well above the minimum needed to place a state constitutional amendment on the ballot.

“Not today,” Pellissier said, when asked at a news conference if the group had the money. “But we have some commitments for future funding, and we have what we think is a good path in order to raise that amount of money.”

He said George Shultz, a former U.S. secretary of state in the Reagan administration, is a part of the campaign team and “has a tremendous amount of influence with major donors.” …

Full article at http://calpensions.com/2011/11/03/pension-initiative-faces-two-tests-funding-courts/

See also the Sacramento Bee account at:

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/03/4026758/ballot-proposals-seek-change-in.html

and

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/03/4026493/the-state-worker-former-gop-chair.html

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An official of another pension group wrote an op ed in yesterday’s LA Times in effect saying to public sector unions that they better go along with the governor’s plan or they will get worse via initiative. See:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-fritz-pension-20111102,0,7172321.story

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You may well feel you have too much pension news. But there is bound to be more as time goes on.

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