• Independent Media for Truckee • North Lake Tahoe
• Friday, February 10, 2012

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Pension Problems

Big earners create big headaches for local governments

While the typical city or special district employee receives a modest pension after years of service, it’s become evident in recent months that certain retirees are drawing astronomical amounts in their golden years at great expense to local and state budgets. The economic crisis has caused a drastic de-funding of many government pension funds, and has brought the issue front and center like never before.

The recent scandal in Bell, Calif., where it was discovered that top officials were pulling in gigantic salaries and even elected council members had gamed the system to bring in paychecks of more than $100,000 per year, has infuriated constituents and brought the situation into even greater relief for the population at large.

The salary a government employee draws during their final year locks in the amount upon which their pension is based. Once it’s on the books, it’s solid. So, despite the fact that Bell’s police chief, who was making $457,000 per year, and the city manager, who topped the city’s money roster at almost $800,000, have resigned, it will take lots of legal wrangling for Bell to get out of their pension obligations at those ridiculously inflated amounts.

The California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, a new nonprofit organization based in Citrus Heights, is committed to shedding light on the pension situation and has a published a list of the 9,111 pension earners across the state pulling in $100,000 or more annually. We thought it might be interesting to see who in the Tahoe/ Truckee region has made their $100K list. Keep in mind that the county, town, and district totals at the bottom of each list do not represent the entire amount that the jurisdictions are shelling out for retirees, but only the amount they are obligated to pay to their largest earners. We couldn’t come up with a similar information source for Nevada and Washoe counties, but we’ll keep digging to see if similar problems exist there.

The information at right was obtained under the Freedom of Information Actfrom the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS). Info: californiapensionreform.org