[quote=abcnews.go.com] California Pension Fund CEO Sentenced for Bribery
A federal judge Tuesday sentenced the former head of the nation’s largest public pension fund to four and 1/2 years in prison in a case in which the pension fund CEO acknowledged accepting more than $200,000 in bribes and trying to steer investments to help an associate.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer called the case against Federico Buenrostro, the former chief executive of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, “seriously troubling” and said it reflected a “spectacular breach of trust for the most venal of purposes, which is self-enrichment.”
[quote=forbes.com] Puerto Rico, Illinois And California: Public Pension Dominoes
In good times, lawmakers at the state and local level are more than happy to give raises to government employees along with generous benefit increases. The future costs for higher retirement benefits are assumed to be covered by the booming stock market investments held by pension funds.
This happened in California in 1999 after government union-backed candidates won both the governor’s mansion as well as the state treasurer’s race and then pushed through a massive increase to pension benefits on the financial strength of what turned out to be the ephemeral froth of the ’90s tech boom. After the promises were made and the market returned to more reasonable valuations, the state’s public pension contribution obligations jumped five-fold from $611 million in 2001 to $3.5 billion in 2010. California’s unfunded pension liability totals $25,325 per capita, the fourth-highest in the nation, when assuming a market rate of return.
[quote=mercatus.org]
A new study for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University ranks each US state’s financial health based on short- and long-term debt and other key fiscal obligations, such as unfunded pensions and healthcare benefits.
#44 California
#45 Hawaii
#46 Kentucky
#47 Illinois
#48 New Jersey
#49 Massachusetts
#50 Connecticut
#51 Puerto Rico
