From: Pacheco, Brad [mailto:Brad_Pacheco@CalPERS.CA.GOV]
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 3:23 PM
Subject: CalPERS on Governor's Comments

At the Sacramento Press Club today, Governor Schwarzenegger suggested that pension costs for the State of California have increased by 2000 percent in the last 10 years. The governor’s claim of rising pension costs is a deliberately cropped picture. The whole picture shows that the state pays proportionately less today per person for pensions than it did in 1981. 19.6% of payroll in 1981 compared to 16.9% today for the largest group of state workers.

The facts, from our website, www.calpersresponds.com, are below.

Myth: Pension Costs for the State of California have increased by 2000 percent in the last 10 years.

Fact:
This statement compares a time when the State paid little or nothing during years of robust investment earnings and took a pension holiday to the recent market cycle extremes and current economic downturn.

Fact:
In 1981-82, pension contributions for the largest category of employees cost the State 19.6 percent of payroll. For the current 2009-10 fiscal year the state is paying 16.9 percent.

Fact:
The State of California pays less as a percentage of payroll today than in did in the early 1980s.

	1981/82	2009/10
State Miscellaneous	19.563%	16.917%
State Safety	20.409	18.099
CHP	31.995	28.438
School Miscellaneous	13.020	9.428

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Brad Pacheco | Division Chief | CalPERS Office of Public Affairs | (916) 795-3711