In what is surely this legislative session’s biggest surprise, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 1383, which would have substantially weakened a modest pension reform bill backed by former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2012. The veto was especially unexpected given that AB 1383 cleared both houses of the legislature by nearly unanimous votes.
In 2012, California’s pension debt exceeded $200 billion, requiring the state and local governments to make up the difference out of their annual budgets. Voters then became aware of the phrase “crowd out,” meaning that the annual allocation from the state and local governments that was required to meet the constitutionally mandated pension obligations was “crowding out” money needed for all other public services.
California found itself in this precarious position when Brown’s predecessor, Gray Davis, signed Senate Bill 400 (1999), that gave prison guards, park rangers, Cal State professors and other state employees the most generous public retirement benefits in the nation. Especially benefited were California Highway Patrol officers under the bill.
The dire situation motivated Brown to propose a 12-point comprehensive pension reform plan which, had it been enacted, would have solved virtually all of California’s public pension problems. Although the California legislature rejected…
