California lawmakers will examine the pension systems that affect hundreds of thousands of government workers. Many of those pensions are under funded and the Governor wants the problem fixed.
Governor Schwarzenegger set up a bipartisan commission to look at the problem of pensions that have a gap between revenues going in and expected payouts.
For example, the state’s largest pension fund, Calpers, with 1.5 million members, currently has a gap of about $27 billion. The 12 member commission is tasked with studying the problem and recommending a solution to the legislature and the governor by January 1st, 2008.
Many government employees are worried about what the commission suggests, because it could affect the amount of their pensions or force them to pay more into their plans.
