July 20, 2004

ORANGE COUNTY IS BANKRUPT -- AGAIN. "Retirement payments to Orange County government employees are estimated to cost $1 billion more than current reserves .. The amount of unfunded pensions has nearly doubled from a year ago .. supervisors joined governments across the state in adopting a generous pension hike for public safety workers that, beginning in July 2002, added $400 million to Orange County's future payments. .. Safety workers � among them sheriff's deputies, firefighters, probation officers [and DMV employees] � can retire at age 50 and earn 3% of their final year's pay for each year on the job, up to 30 years. An employee could receive a pension of 90% of his or her salary. Other county workers qualify for retirement at age 62 and earn 1.67% of their final year's pay for each year on the job. Their pensions top out at 50.1% of their salaries. The county spends nearly 40 cents of every payroll dollar on retirement costs for public safety employees and about 13 cents on pensions for other employees.

The LA Times -- "O.C.'s Reserve for Pension Payments Is $1 Billion Short". Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack