Hey Guv! How about a billion for UCRP?

CalPERS - which covers CSU employees and many others - is due for an infusion of funding under Gov. Newsom's new budget plan. So is CalSTRS. But UCRP? Nothing there.

From the Sacramento Bee:

The State Worker

California would kick in CalPERS debt payments ahead of schedule under Newsom proposal

Wes Venteicher, 1-11-22 

California will whittle down its long-term debt in the fiscal year ahead with a supplemental pension payment of $3.5 billion, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal. The state will pay the money to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System on top of a regular $8.4 billion payment toward the pensions of state workers and retirees, according to the proposal. Newsom highlighted the pension payments in a Monday press conference on his estimated $286.4 billion budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1. 

The supplemental payment of $3.5 billion toward pension liabilities will save the state at least $7 billion over the next three decades, according to the budget proposal. Riding a stock market boom, CalPERS earned enough money on its investments in the last fiscal year to significantly improve its long-term fiscal position. As of July, the system had about 80% of the money it would need to cover all its long-term debts, up from 71% a year earlier. 

The retirement system, with an investment fund valued at $493 billion as of last week, charges the state and other public employers each year under a plan to pay down its liabilities and reach full funding by the mid-2040s. The state has been supplementing its payments over the last four years under provisions of Proposition 2, the 2014 ballot initiative backed by former Gov. Jerry Brown. The measure requires the state to dedicate money each year toward its debts and to a rainy day fund. The state has made $12.7 billion in supplemental payments to CalPERS and CalSTRS over the last four years, and would pay roughly $6 billion more to CalPERS through fiscal year 2025-2026 under current projections, according to the budget proposal. 

California will pay $3.7 billion to the California State Teachers’ Retirement System in the next fiscal year, according to the proposal. But at CalSTRS, which also reported a big investment return for the year ending in July, the return means California state government’s obligations toward the system’s unfunded liabilities could be eliminated in three years, much earlier than the previous target date of 2046. Schools are still projected to continue making contributions to the pension debt through 2046. CalSTRS, valued at $320 billion as of November, expects to reach 80% funding in 10 years and 100% funding in 2041, five years ahead of schedule, according to information presented at a November board meeting. 

Nonetheless, big losses in future years could send the numbers in the wrong direction, driving up state debts. “We are far removed from the public pension quicksand,” said Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda. He said the pension debts are so significant the state should consider setting up a separate pension savings account while it’s benefiting from budget surpluses running in the tens of billions of dollars. Newsom’s office anticipates a $45.7 billion surplus in the next budget year following an $80 billion surplus in the current budget. Glazer has supported Newsom’s proposals to pay pension debt ahead of schedule.

 “Public employees have earned the right to a pension and we have to honestly and fully own that mutual commitment,” he said.

Source: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article257203302.html.