PERS pays pensions
Adrian Moore's Community Voices article is unbelievable for several reasons. His article contains false statements and inflated rhetoric. If he cannot get a simple fact straight then the rest of his argument should be suspect.
The fact is that overtime salaries are not and cannot be calculated into a city employee's retirement benefit. The only thing that counts is his or her regular or base wages.
The city does not pay benefits directly to retired employees. It makes payments on behalf of current employees to the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). The payment for 2009-2010 is approximately 6 percent of the operating budget. All retirement benefits are paid from PERS. With PERS having $176 billion in investments, the majority of benefits are paid out from these investments, not employer's contributions.
There are examples of government agencies up and down the state of California that are 100 percent funded and are not experiencing problems managing their retirement plans. Had the city not elected to take refunds in the late 1990's the scope of the pension issue would surely be less.
So Bakersfield, let's get real about pensions. Don't obtain your information from the newspaper. Go to the source: www.calpers.ca.gov.
BILL MACAULEY
Bakersfield
