It pays to retire from an Inland Southern California government job, an open-records advocacy group says.
Many retired Inland public employees receive pensions far exceeding the typical full-time Inland worker’s annual salary, according to a study released today by Transparent California, which has ties to a conservative think tank. But some critics took issues with the group’s findings, saying the math was skewed to reflect the group’s anti-union stance.
In 2014, nonpublic-safety employees who worked at least 35 years with an Inland public agency received pensions paying, on average, 67 percent more than the average area worker’s salary, according to the study.
Police and firefighters who worked at least 30 years got an average pension paying 124 percent more than the typical worker’s pay, the report said.
“Average full-career pensions that significantly exceed the wages of most full-time workers shatters the myth that (the California Public Employees’ Retirement System) only provides a modest level of retirement income,” Robert Fellner, Transparent California’s research director, said in a news release.
Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Californians for Retirement Security, a group backed by public employee unions, dismissed Transparent California’s report.
“They ought to be ashamed and embarrassed for manufacturing skewed data designed to pit Californians against each other (and) inflame rather than to help figure out how every Californian deserves to retire with dignity, whether they are in the public or private sector,” Maviglio wrote in an email.
Transparent California said its findings are based on more than 600,000 CalPERS records obtained through public records requests.
Not all retired government workers are prospering.
Martha Mieles retired after 20 years as a county social worker. But she said she had to go back to work because her pension didn’t pay her living expenses.
“Last month was bad because my car broke down and I had to borrow money for gas to get to work,” she said. “When I hear different people talk (about large public employee pensions), then I say, ‘You’re talking about a few.’”
Taxpayer-funded pensions for public-sector retirees have been a hot topic in recent years. Concerns about the sustainability of Riverside County’s pension system influenced contract negotiations with unions. In 2012, county supervisors approved pay raises for employees who agreed to pay more toward their own retirements.
Supervisors also OK’d smaller pensions for new hires.
Also in 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a series of pension changes, including bigger employee contributions, a benefits cap and a higher employee retirement age for new employees. The changes were meant to shore up CalPERS and the state teachers retirement system, which at the time were underfunded by about $165 billion.
Despite the overhaul, Riverside County’s CalPERS costs are projected to rise. Recent estimates have the county’s annual CalPERS payments rising 70 percent from 2014 to almost $400 million in 2023.
The county’s unfunded pension liability is almost $1.3 billion. But county officials have said the pension system is in good shape because more than 80 percent of its total liabilities are funded.
‘FULL-CAREER’
Transparent California focused on what it called “full-career” retirees – public-safety employees who worked at least 30 years, and nonpublic-safety employees with at least 35 years of service.
For the city of Riverside, the average pension for a public, non-safety employee who retired with at least 30 years of service was $73,241, according to Transparent California. The median earnings for a Riverside city resident were $41,487, the group said, referring to census data.
Statewide, almost 20,000 CalPERS retirees in 2014 received pensions of $100,000 or more, up 35 percent from 2012, Transparent California found.
“With retirement costs expanding to as much as 10 times what private employers are paying, maintaining the status quo is extremely irresponsible,” Fellner said.
BAD COMPARISON?
Maviglio, a Sacramento political consultant, said Transparent California’s comparisons are bogus. “The ‘average Inland Empire resident’ doesn’t have 30 years … on the job nor contributed toward their pensions at the levels public employees do,” he said.
“They’re lumping fast-food workers and other occupations that do not require education or training and comparing them to a firefighter or teacher with 30 years on a job, specialized training, and in skilled jobs and who aren’t eligible for Social Security.”
Less than 2 percent of CalPERS pensions are worth $100,000 or more, Maviglio said.
According to CalPERS, most of the system’s retirees get 50 percent of their highest pay or less in benefits. The average CalPERS pension is worth $31,500 a year, and 40 percent of CalPERS retirees do not get Social Security, the agency reported.
Members of Service Employees International Union Local 721 who work for Riverside County include nurses, social workers, accountants and engineers, said union spokeswoman Tracy Silveria.
“They live here. They raise their families here. They want to retire here,” she said. “They pay taxes. They contribute to the economy. They deserve to retire in dignity.”
Silveria had harsh words for Transparent California, a project of the Nevada Policy Research Institute, which describes itself on its website as “a free-market think tank that seeks private solutions to public challenges facing Nevada, the West and the nation.”
“‘Transparent California’ is a cynical name for a group that refuses to provide any transparency of its own,” she said. “It is an out-of-state anti-union group that prefers to hide behind numbers that can’t be verified and are twisted to fit their agenda.”
Fellner said Transparent California’s numbers can be verified through CalPERS and the public agencies cited in the report.
“While some may wish to attack the messenger, this does not change the fact that the data shows average full-career pensions that are much greater than typically understood and surpass the earnings of most residents who must support these pensions through higher taxes,” he said.
VOTERS DECIDE?
Former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and ex-San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio are trying to get an initiative on the 2016 ballot that would require voter approval for government pension enhancements and to extend “defined” pension benefits – guaranteed retirement payments – to new hires.
“California’s politicians have chosen tax hikes and draconian service cuts to divert taxpayer money for unsustainable and indefensible government pension payouts, which is exactly why we must empower voters with this initiative to get reform done,” DeMaio said in June.
Suzanne Montoya retired from Riverside County government with 20 years of service credit. Now living in Washington state, Montoya, 70, said the public in general, and the wealthy in particular, should be grateful for CalPERS.
“Otherwise, we’d be on public assistance,” said Montoya, who said her pension pays less than $45,000. “If they want retirees to continue as consumers, you will have to have a good retirement.”
Contact the writer: 951-368-9547 or jhorseman@pe.com
http://www.pe.com/articles/public-782630-california-pension.html