CalMatters Staff

Many cities across California face rising costs for public employee retirement benefits. And for some, that’s laying bare a stark reality — it’s getting tougher to provide basic services and meet the pension obligations promised years ago.

The mayor of El Monte, a cash-strapped San Gabriel Valley city with many retired employees drawing two pensions, says there’s "no rational justification" for the double pensions.

One in four El Monte residents lives in poverty. Yet taxpayers pay a steep price to fund bonus pensions and other perks for city workers.

How did California define itself in 2016? As the state girding itself to mastermind the progressive resistance against a looming Trump administration? The state struggling to take the global lead in a daunting quest to halt global climate change? The state saddled with unfunded liabilities to pay off generous public employee pensions, and riddled with […]

Cities and states across the country are facing public employee pension debt that is challenging and, in some cases, crippling their budgets. But some municipalities are experimenting with ways to solve that problem.

Pension costs for state and local government will begin to rise in 2017 after CalPERS officials voted to throttle back the expectations on profits earned from its $299 billion portfolio.

California faces a $240 billion unfunded pension liability. But retired state workers who receive pensions say they are tired of drawing public blame.

Retirement benefits now eat up 20% of city’s general fund revenue. Touted cost controls won't have real impact for decades.

As a state bluer than Lake Tahoe in sunlight, California has adopted a slew of progressive policies that drive Donald Trump nuts. They combat climate change, protect undocumented immigrants, evangelize for Obamacare and more. So this week—as candidate Trump morphed into President-elect Trump—uncertainty swept the state. While protesters hit the streets and the hashtag #Calexit […]

Gov. Jerry Brown was confident his-12 point plan could reform California’s pension crisis. Five years later, the state’s unfunded liabilities continue to pile up with little change. CALmatter’s Judy Lin explains why the plan failed to progress.