Los Angeles, CA In a bombshell expose of California’s massive unfunded public employee benefits Full Disclosure Network® is featuring a two-part series with public employee officials and finance expert B. Scott Minerd, CEO Guggenheim Partners, Asset Management to debut on L.A. Cable Channel 36 Sunday, January 7th from 8-9 p.m. and on Monday, January 8th from 4-5 p.m. A six minute Internet preview is available 24/7 for viewing here as a public service. The program is distributed to 43 cable systems. DVDs of the complete series are available upon request.
Scott Minerd was a moderator at the Milken Institute’s “State of the State Conference” last fall, for a panel discussion entitled “The Ticking Time Bomb. Expert panelists featured are:
- Hon. Keith Richman, MD, California State Assembly
- Carl De Maio, CEO Performance Institute
- Jack Ehnes, CEO California State Teachers Retirement System (CALSTERS)
- Dave Low, California School Employees Association
- Barbara Lloyd, Sr. Vice President Lehman Brothers
Highlights from the six segments in Full Disclosure® series:
Segment #1: Scott Minerd describes his role as a Managing Director of Credit Suisse he exposed the risky concentration in derivative securities which directly led to the liquidation of the Orange County investment portfolio and the county's subsequent bankruptcy." He defines the new GASB (General Accounting Standard Board) rules and estimates new disclosures will reveal $300 to $400 billion in unrecorded benefits owed to California public employees.
Segment #2: Will Municipal bankruptcies spread across California? Minerd suggests that pension benefit debt is unanticipated by the public and bond rating companies. The $300-$400 billion debt is “present value” but Minerd adds” the actual sum is more likely a trillion dollars.”
Segment #3: How widespread are the unfunded liabilities? Assemblyman Keith Richman cites the counties of San Diego, Contra Costa and Orange County (again) that have billions in unfunded public employee pension benefits. Minerd suggests the alternatives: (1) Attempt to fund now (2) Ignore and pay as you go, hoping for the best (3) Break the promises made to public employees by redefining benefits, employees working longer, caps on amount of benefits.
Segment #4: What role have politicians and public employee unions played in this crisis? Carl DeMaio CEO Performance Institute cites retroactive benefits approved by elected officials, and pension benefit debt is $130 billion before unfunded health care benefits that is three times all outstanding debt now in California. Keith Richman cites State Legislative Analyst reports that School Districts are likely to go bankrupt, citing LAUSD’s own report of $10 billion debt that will cost $2,100 per student per year for the next 30 years to pay off.
Segment #5: Barbara Lloyd of Lehman Bros. Cites that only ten percent of Counties have funded or partially funded public employee benefit plans. And, that these plans include coverage for spouses, survivors even after medicare age. Scott Minerd suggests that the stock market performance on benefit plan investments have no impact on government pension plans where no money has been set aside.
Segment #6: Infrastructure Bonds of $40 billion will cost another $40 billion in interest. Scott Minerd and other experts on the Milken Institute panel maintained that infrastructure projects should be paid for out of the general fund because it is an investment in the future. “The electorate is as guilty as the politicians….by saying what is good for me today, let someone else pay for tomorrow” Minerd suggested that when voters approved the bonds “all it did was allow the state to spend more on other things and not to address the true fiscal issues.”
Billed as “the news behind the news” the Full Disclosure Network® is an independent, educational, public affairs cable and Internet television program available from the website www.fulldisclosure.net Hosted by Leslie Dutton, who in 2002 was presented with a local public affairs Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for their series entitled “L.A.’s War Against Terrorism”.
Comments to date: 13. This is page 1 of 2.
dick cleverley sacrameto
Posted: 02:17 pm [PST] on July 26 2010
Always great info...thanks for all your efforts. Too bad the major news groups don't report this kind of info.
Fred Sottile Rancho Dominguez
Posted: 07:24 pm [PST] on July 25 2010
As Long as we continue to allow the unions and politicians to give a choice to two candidates that are both owned by those unions and political parties, we will continue to be abused by them. The Republican/Democrat Party is the sweetheart/whore of these unions.
Do not be duped into supporting these thieves. Run your own candidate and vote for him. Vote independent. Any politician who currently holds office must be voted out to demonstrate your acknowledgment that it is the Democrat/Republican Party who created the mess we are now faced with.
We need accountability from people whom we have entrusted to be our leaders. When they betray us, we must rise. Vote them out. Make the bribes and their multi-million dollar campaigns worthless. Vote the incumbents out and make it clear to the next regime that you are there to hold them accountable for their actions.
Mike Neuwirth Sherman Oaks, Ca.
Posted: 11:15 am [PST] on July 14 2009
Jay Graham from Apple Valley is right on target. My family too, receives pension funds from LACERA.
Instead of grouping all pension funds, incompetently run ones as well as well managed ones such as LACERA, in order to rob Peter to pay Paul is stupid foolish and greedy.
LACERA should be looked at as an EXAMPLE of how to manage a retirement system and not as a cash cow resource to save other poorly managed plans.
With regard to our stolen Social Security benefits, it is my understanding that a lawsuit has been filed on our behalf demanding an immediate vacating of the Windfall Elimination Provision, so our Social Security benefits can no longer be stolen.
My wife and I also planned our retirement with this payment stream in mind.
liiana fargo
Posted: 07:08 am [PST] on June 24 2009
Unles public pensions systems in these states are reformed, we will see an economic collapse of this states. Now south the border seems to be more appealing.
dick cleverley sacramento
Posted: 10:32 am [PST] on May 24 2009
Trying to to get through to the general public is very difficult. Just don't know what the answer is?
Leslie Dutton Los Angeles
Posted: 09:34 am [PST] on May 24 2009
Cher: For the record please note, Cal-Pers is not mentioned in this report. The acronym is similar to the Teachers Pension system CALSTERS so they are easily confused.
R FOCOSI PACOIMA
Posted: 01:19 pm [PST] on April 12 2009
This is astounding. How could we get billions in debt without even knowing it? It looks to me that our elected officials are looking out for themselves and the labor union leaders are doing the same. There is no excuse for this selfishness.
Cher' CA
Posted: 03:41 pm [PST] on October 02 2007
Please get your facts straight. CAL-PERS is funded by our employee contributions. The majority of income from CAL-PERS comes from what they invested, which has been far more successfully managed when compared to other investment and certainly far exceed the investment earning on an IRA. To balance California's state budget by borrowing or raiding our retirement is theft. We have worked for wages far below what the private sector would have paid for the benefits offered in the public sector and do not have enough income to otherwise afford medical treatment for ourselves and our children. As a school employee for more than 30 years who has raised 4 children on poverty wages, I object to this segment being aired as a public service.
Gary Michael Adler Northridge, CA
Posted: 11:16 am [PST] on January 15 2007
Bankruptcy won't occur on *my watch* so what do I care?
It's those same liberals that think that Bush blew up the WTC to get us into a war, made our governor into a Rino, and blame EVERYTHING on those cruel Republicans . The only problem is that they work for us and teach our children to hate what America really stands for.
Can they teach our children to spell EXODUS?
Leslie Dutton Los Angeles
Posted: 09:09 pm [PST] on January 07 2007
Jay Graham,
Thank you so much for your comments and perspective. At last we have begun a public discussion, without which the problems cannot be resolved. Now there will be public disclosure of the promises made to our public servants, hopefully there will be more responsiblilty and the likelihood that whatever promises are made, will be realistic and be kept. Thanks again for your comments. Hope you will continue to share them with us.