California commission advises funding $118 billion of OPEB liabilities

California commission advises funding $118 billion of OPEB liabilities January 7, 2008 Summary Report Article The Public Employee Post-Employment Benefits Commission—appointed by leaders of the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger—released an over-300-page report on pension and retiree health benefits policy for state and local governments in California. A first-of-its-kind statewide survey identified at least $118 billion in unfunded retiree health (also known as OPEB) liabilities, as self-reported by state and local governments in California, and an unfunded pension liability for all public systems of $63.5 billion. This means that, while pension liabilities are 89 percent funded statewide, retiree health liabilities generally are not funded at all. The bipartisan commission concluded that "prefunding OPEB benefits is just as important as prefunding pensions," and "the ultimate goal of a prefunding policy should be to achieve full funding." (The Report link includes the commission's full report. The Article link includes a press release. Other information is available on the commission's Web site at http://www.pebc.ca.gov.)

California commission advises funding $118 billion of OPEB liabilities
January 7, 2008
Summary Report Article

The Public Employee Post-Employment Benefits Commission—appointed by leaders of the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger—released an over-300-page report on pension and retiree health benefits policy for state and local governments in California. A first-of-its-kind statewide survey identified at least $118 billion in unfunded retiree health (also known as OPEB) liabilities, as self-reported by state and local governments in California, and an unfunded pension liability for all public systems of $63.5 billion. This means that, while pension liabilities are 89 percent funded statewide, retiree health liabilities generally are not funded at all. The bipartisan commission concluded that "prefunding OPEB benefits is just as important as prefunding pensions," and "the ultimate goal of a prefunding policy should be to achieve full funding." (The Report link includes the commission's full report. The Article link includes a press release. Other information is available on the commission's Web site at http://www.pebc.ca.gov.)