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 State Senate President Darrell Steinberg on public pensions.  It includes a link to a recording of Steinberg’s remarks on pensions at a press conference of 1-26-2012.  Good luck with that link; the IT guy at the Bee must have gone home for the weekend.  Nevertheless, yours truly has come to the rescue and you can hear it without hassle by clicking on the link below.

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

Steinberg indicates that the legislature is willing to contemplate Brown’s hybrid concept (mix of defined benefit and defined contribution for new hires) but he also indicates he likes defined benefit.  However, the details are not important at this point.  You can read the Bee blog at http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worker/2012/01/darrell-steinberg-says-pension-reform-must-pass-strength-test.html for more detail and listen to the recording.  The main point is that if UC wants to carve out some kind of exemption for the changes in its pension system that the Regents already enacted in December 2010, UCOP and the Regents need to start talking with Steinberg & Co.  With some creativity, we can adjust the Regents’ plan to be a hybrid if needed, say, by adding a small defined contribution element along the lines of what we had during the two-decade contribution “holiday” which got us into trouble.

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

Listen to the recording below: