Expose on CalPERS Illuminates Collusion Between Big Labor and Big Finance

One of the more astute observers of public sector union impact on government policy and government budgets is Steven Malanga, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute. In an article just published in City Journal entitled “The Pension Fund That Ate California,” Malanga recounts the history of CalPERS from its modest inception in 1932 to the monster it has become today. It ought to be required reading for every taxpayer in California. And it provides ample evidence of how the political agendas of public sector unions and the financial sector are closely aligned and coordinated, despite the barrage of propaganda from public sector unions that would have voters believe the opposite is the case.

As Malanga recounts, when CalPERS started back in the 1930’s, during the onset of the great depression, the financial risks of investing too aggressively or over-promising benefits were well understood.  Pension fund investments were restricted to federal Treasury bonds and state municipal bonds. Retirement ages were set at age 65, and the pension formula was set at 1.43 percent of a retirees average salary during their last five years working. And not much changed until rise of public sector union power in the late sixties.

The following excerpt from Malanga’s article explains how today, the interests of CalPERS are completely intertwined with those of the public sector unions, by describing how the public sector unions now virtually control the CalPERS board of directors:


Since California’s treasurer, controller, and governor are all elected thanks to massive political contributions from public sector unions, this means that a supermajority of the CalPERS board, 10 of the 13 members, are likely if not certain to be pursuing the agenda of the unions. And as Malanga notes, the unions even thwarted current Gov. Brown’s recent attempt to include in his pension reform a plan to add two members with financial expertise to the CalPERS board.

Malanga’s report includes abundant examples of conflicts of interest that are inevitable when a politically managed fund controls hundreds of billions in investments. Two of the of the most chilling examples are how investment firms made political contributions to union backed candidates, while, coincidentally, CalPERS then directed investments from their pension fund into these firms.



Control of CalPERS by public sector union advocates has resulted in pension formulas increasing from 1.43% at 65 to between 2.0% and 3.0% at 50 to 60 today. It has resulted in an aggressive, risky investment strategy that, using the latest estimates, leaves CalPERS now underfunded by at least $80 billion. But control of CalPERS by public sector unions also has turned it into a lobbyist and a powerful public spokesperson. As Malanga writes, the information CalPERS puts out to voters is often deliberately misleading:



When someone considers public sector union power, which in California runs on well over $1.0 billion each year in dues revenue and a standing army of full-time professionals, volunteers, and retirees, even that isn’t necessarily enough to explain their nearly absolute control over every city, county, and agency in the state, up to and including the state legislature. It is the alliance between the largest financial interests in California combined with the political clout of the unions, that makes them pretty much omnipotent.

In California, financial interests issue bonds to cover what is now nearly a trillion dollars in outstanding government debt, and they invest nearly half-a-trillion in public employee pension fund assets. Despite a well cultivated perception that the public sector unions fight these financial interests, in reality they want the same things: Deficits which accompany more spending on union payrolls require new bonds to be issued at great profit to the issuers, and more pension benefits provide additional compensation to union members, requiring more money for the bankers to manage – at great profit. Only the taxpayers lose.

10 replies
  1. Avatar
    Tough Love says:

    While the financial Union pig-fest will likely be coming to an end (the Math will force that issue), it’s quite the shame that few (if any) fraud, bribery, or racketeering prosecutions of the Union Officials and the contribution-soliciting politicians who so screwed the Taxpayers and ignored their obligations will be prosecuted for their activities.

    Perhaps the Plan participants who will likely lose a good portion of their promised pensions will tie up these shameful actors in Civil Litigation for years.

  2. Avatar
    Robert T says:

    Public employee pensions and other retiree benefits (e.g free healthcare) suck the life out of the taxpayer who will never see such outrageous benefits. Here’s some simple math: $65,000 per year + $12,000 per year for free healthcare for 25 years of retirement = $2,000,000 payout!!! (A lottery hit) Unsustainable for the poor taxpayer who’s services are being cut to fund this black hole. This ain’t “middle class” stuff folks and I’m already paying my “fair share” of it.

  3. Avatar
    SeeSaw says:

    Your math example is hypothetical and not true for most retirees, Rotert T. The average CalPERS benefit is less than $3,000/mo and free health care is a thing of the past. What health care is provided, if it is, is a stipend toward the total cost. We are all taxpayers–you get no more credit for being a taxpayer than do the retirees. A 25-year lifetime after retirement is rare, because the average retirement age is 60. One who must use the benefits to pay living expenses certainly cannot stockpile the money. So your, “millionaire” example, is hypothetical too.

  4. Avatar
    SeeSaw says:

    Rex is the one who is spinning. The amount of $68,000 he quotes regards a group of CalPERS retirees with 30-yr careers, within the total group of retirees, for the Fiscal year 2010-2011. Those retirees had 30-year’s service credit, respectively. There were thousands of others that retired at the end of the same year. The average retirement amount for all CalPERS retirees from Fiscal Year 2010-2011 was $3065/mo–or $36,078/yr. The average for the last Fiscal Year, 2011-2012 is less–$3025/mo.

  5. Avatar
    Tough Love says:

    Seesaw, Rex’s POINT is that to be able to make an apples to apples comparison it is reasonable to compare the pensions of 30-yr carees Public Sector workers (retiring in 2010-2011) with comparable Private Sector retirees.

    There is CLEARLY no way that the average pension of 2010-2011 Private Sector retirees (after a 30 yr career) is anywhere near a $68K annually … even w/o COLA increases (which increases the pension’s value by an additional 1/3).

  6. Avatar
    SeeSaw says:

    TL, you and Rex are doing the spinning, trying to make it appear that $68,000 is a big deal to CalPERS. Those making $68,000 are but a small number of people in a group that totals thousands more. It is the bottom line that counts to the entity that is making the payments. And, the CalPERS payments average under $3,000/mo for 500,000 current annuitants. There is no spinning going on with my comments. My comments are all facts.

    Of course in all of this discourse you both omit the fact that corporate managers take away millions when they retire, even if they were fired. How about comparing corporate managers with municipal managers. You won’t find any apples to apples comparisons there. The comparisons of you and Rex are apples to oranges.

  7. Avatar
    Tough Love says:

    Seesaw, doesn’t your answer ignore THE POINT …. why is it justifiable, with public sector workers earning no less in “cash pay” than their private sector counterparts, that they get pensions, the Taxpayer paid-for share of which is FAR FAR greater …. multiples grater than the comparable Private Sector worker retiring at the SAME pay, the SAME age, and the SAME years of service ?

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