The Shasta County Board of Supervisors formally memorialized its opposition to a public-pension bill in a Sept. 29 letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, even though Newsom had vetoed the measure nine days earlier.
In the three-page letter, Board Chair Chris Kelstrom wrote that AB 1383 would have changed public employees’ retirement benefits and “significantly raise[d] pension costs for public employers.” The letter says it was not seeking further action on the veto, but was intended to record the board’s concerns about the bill’s fiscal and policy effects on public agencies, including Shasta County.
The county said the bill would have raised the pensionable compensation cap, lowered the retirement age for public-safety members from 57 to 55 prospectively, and added a fourth safety tier with a 3% at 55 formula, subject to bargaining. The board said those changes could have increased state and local pension obligations and created additional budget pressure.
The letter also says higher benefit costs could leave less money for salary increases, affect recruitment efforts and deepen equity issues between safety and nonsafety employees. It further argues that some employees covered by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, could have faced higher contributions without receiving a benefit from the increased compensation cap.
Newsom’s Sept. 20 veto message similarly said AB 1383 would increase state and local government costs and partially reverse reforms under the California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act, or PEPRA. Neither the county letter nor the veto record supplied with the county materials quantifies Shasta County’s projected cost exposure.
The supplied record does not include the supervisors’ vote tally or a response from the governor or legislative representatives.
