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In total, the study covers 564 state and local systems in the United States that reported $1.91 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities under GASB 67 in FY 2014. The analysis reveals that, despite well-performing markets from 2009 to 2014, state and local government pension systems are underwater by $3.4 trillion and that the true cost of keeping pension liabilities from rising is 17.5 percent of state and local budgets. Even contributions of those magnitudes would not begin to pay down the trillions of dollars of unfunded legacy liabilities; they would simply stop the unfunded liability from rising.

“Four years of warnings of the consequences of government culpability – from cancelling water projects to releasing millions of acre-feet of precious stored reservoir water in utopian efforts to restore 19th-century salmon runs in the San Joaquin River or to rebound a bait fish population in the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta – are no longer written off as shrill.”

“Between August 27 and September 5, Hoover’s Golden State Poll (a joint collaboration of the Hoover Institution and the research firm YouGov) surveyed 1,000 Californians on their confidence in California’s recovery – their job security and pocketbook choices (last October, a Hoover/YouGov survey sampled Californians’ attitudes toward state government and policy choices in Sacramento). . . . Twice as many Californians reported being worse-off financially (33%) than better off (17%) over the last year. . . . Among survey respondents who are currently employed, more than half (55%) said they weren’t confident in their ability to find another job in California within 6 months that pays as much as they are making now.”

“Between August 27 and September 5, Hoover’s Golden State Poll (a joint collaboration of the Hoover Institution and the research firm YouGov) surveyed 1,000 Californians on their confidence in California’s recovery – their job security and pocketbook choices (last October, a Hoover/YouGov survey sampled Californians’ attitudes toward state government and policy choices in Sacramento).

. . . Twice as many Californians reported being worse-off financially (33%) than better off (17%) over the last year.

. . . Among survey respondents who are currently employed, more than half (55%) said they weren’t confident in their ability to find another job in California within 6 months that pays as much as they are making now.”