Report: County's fiscal position stable going into 2nd half of 2023-24
Hiker who died on Museum hiking trail identified as local retired art teacher
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VISIT CORONANEWSPRESS.COM
Thursday, February 29-March 06, 2024
Local. Relevant. Trusted.
VOL. 8,
NO. 161
Report: County's unfunded pension gap at $3.66 billion
Man who gunned down couple watching movie gets life sentence
By City News Service
By City News Service
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iverside County supervisors signed off on a report Wednesday showing county government's unfunded pension liabilities have spiked, largely due to poor investment returns at the state level, and it means higher near-term costs. The 2024 Pension Advisory Review Committee report said the county's retirement apparatus is now 75.3% funded, compared to 86.6% previously. The key metric reflective of a sound pension system is considered 80% funded status. The county's total unfunded pension gap is $3.66 billion, compared to $1.88 billion estimated in the 2023 report, according to PARC. The figures are based on calculations that end in fiscal year 2021-22 — the most recent period for which confirmed data is available from the California Public Employees' Retirement System. PARC estimated liabilities will decline going forward, with the funded status gradually returning to 80% over the next eight years. The county's current asset base supporting the pension system is $11.2 billion. There are two main categories in the local pension system — safety and miscellaneous. The safety category covers sheriff's deputies, District Attorney's Office investigators, probation agents and others, while the miscellaneous rolls cover clerks, custodians, nurses, social workers, technicians and remaining employees not involved in any law enforce-
This chart shows how Riverside County gets discretionary revenue. | Image courtesy of Riverside County Executive Office
ment function. The amounts required to fund workers' nest eggs in CalPERS will steadily rise over the next five years, according to PARC. "I won't be here when it comes to increasing pension and health care costs," said Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, who is retiring at the end of the year. "You're looking at $600 million in new costs over 36 months. That is going to be an incredible nut to crack, dealing with those astronomical numbers. We're going to pay our employees well, but there are going to be a lot less of them." The biggest influence on pension costs is CalPERS' investment performance, which in fiscal year 2021-22 slouched, with stock market assets losing 6.1% in value, according to the report. However, CalPERS has already verified a bounce-back in 2023 of 6%, and the agency anticipates rates of return of 6.7% to 7.7% over the next decade, barring unforeseen events. Poor investment returns going back to the Great Recession have required the county to pay higher amounts
to CalPERS to cover loses in the safety and miscellaneous categories. The aggregate contribution rates in the next fiscal year will be the equivalent of 50.7% of payroll for the safety category, and the equivalent of 28.6% of payroll for the miscellaneous category, according to the report. Employees across the spectrum in county government generally contribute less than 10% of gross earnings toward their defined-benefit plans with CalPERS. General fund allocations to support the retirement system will steadily rise over the next decade, approaching $900 million in support by the early 2030s, according to PARC. The county gained some near-term relief from higher pension costs by selling $716 million in bonds at low interest rates in May 2020 and applying the proceeds to pension debt reduction, or what Jeffries compared at the time to "using a credit card to pay off a credit card." The 2020 bond debt was added to similar issuances in 2005 that were also intended
to pare down long-term pension obligations, relying on advantageous interest rates. The county will be able to repay the IOUs before 2040. In the past, Jeffries and other supervisors expressed a desire for the county to phase out some defined-benefit plans in favor of definedcontribution plans, as exist in most private sector retirement guarantees. But Executive Office staff have described the process as riddled with hurdles because of requirements in state law, potentially incurring prohibitive expenses for the county. Under pre-2012 plans negotiated with collective bargaining units, safety workers accrued retirement earnings according to a "3% at 50" formula, fixing compensation at 3% of the average of the three highest-paid years of an employee's career, multiplied by the number of years on the job. An employee could begin collecting full retirement at age 50. Miscellaneous workers received benefits based on a "3% at 60" formula. Beginning in September 2012, new hires in the safety category began accruing retirement benefits under a 2% at 50 formula, while newly hired miscellaneous workers began accruing benefits under a 2% at 60 formula. Legislation signed into law soon afterward added another category for public sector employees hired after Jan. 1, 2013. The lower benefit formula is 2% at 62 for miscellaneous and 2.7% at 57 for safety workers.
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23-year-old schizophrenic and chronic marijuana user who fatally shot a young man and woman as they watched a movie at a Corona theater was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Joseph Jimenez was declared sane at the conclusion of a bench trial in December, clearing the way for his conviction of two counts of first-degree murder, special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and taking multiple lives, as well as sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations. Jimenez had argued that he was insane at the time of the crime, but Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst found the defendant was mentally competent. During a sentencing hearing Monday at the Riverside Hall of Justice, Hollenhorst imposed the sentence required by law. Jimenez fatally shot Anthony Barajas, 19, and Rylee Goodrich, 18, both of Corona, in 2021 at the Regal Edwards Theater. His attorney Charles Kenyon argued that Jimenez could See Fatal shot Page 18
Polytechnic High School students to represent region in state mock trial
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By City News Service
team of Riverside Polytechnic High School students has won the 2024 Riverside County Mock Trial Competition and will advance to the state competition in March, the Riverside County Office of Education announced Friday. The mock trial competition took place at the Riverside Historic Courthouse, where students argued cases in front of real judges while being scored by practicing attorneys. For the finals, Polytechnic High School represented the prosecution, while Notre Dame High School argued for the defense in a fictional case. Polytechnic High School will represent the region at the California Mock Trial Competition in Los Angeles in March. The state winner will advance to the National Mock Trial, which will be held in Wilmington, Delaware in May. See Polytechnic High School Page 31