Audio Recording Indicates that UC Needs to Talk With Legislative Leaders on Pensions

Yesterday’s State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee carried a story about remarks by California StateSenate President Darrell Steinberg on public pensions.  It includes a link to a recording ofSteinberg’s remarks on pensions at a press conference of 1-26-2012.  Good luck with that link; the IT guy at theBee must have gone home for the weekend. Nevertheless, yours truly has come to the rescue and you can hear itwithout hassle by clicking on the link below.

There is a back story which state politicos will understand regardingSteinberg’s remarks.  Last year, thelegislature kept waiting for Gov. Brown to negotiate a deal with Republicans –which never happened.  When it becameclear it wouldn’t happen, the legislature slapped together a budget just beforethe June 15 deadline so its members would get paid.  (Voters had earlier approved a propositionthat cut off legislative pay if the budget deadline was not met.)  The governor then vetoed the budget and thestate controller said it wasn’t technically “balanced” and thus cut off pay fora few days until another budget was enacted. Reporters in the recording ask Steinberg if the legislature wants towait for Brown to come up with a specific legislative bill on pensions (asopposed to the general concepts he {Brown} has proposed).  Steinberg in effect says that the legislaturehas learned its lesson about waiting for Brown and this time will work on itsown.

Steinberg indicates that the legislature is willing tocontemplate Brown’s hybrid concept (mix of defined benefit and definedcontribution for new hires) but he also indicates he likes definedbenefit.  However, the details are notimportant at this point.  You can readthe Bee blog at http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worker/2012/01/darrell-steinberg-says-pension-reform-must-pass-strength-test.htmlfor more detail and listen to the recording. The main point is that if UCwants to carve out some kind of exemption for the changes in its pension system that theRegents already enacted in December 2010, UCOP and the Regents need to starttalking with Steinberg & Co. With some creativity, we can adjust the Regents’ plan to be a hybrid ifneeded, say, by adding a small defined contribution element along the lines ofwhat we had during the two-decade contribution “holiday” which got us intotrouble.

Bottom line: Thegovernor is not the only player.  Indeed,he may not be the key player on pensions; UCOP and the Regents need to engagethe legislative leaders.

Listen to therecording below: