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It should be highlighted that these payments are not for current obligations; these are not payments as part of payroll or for any current employee. The payments that Calpers is fighting over are payments of interest on the losses suffered by Calpers during the dot.com bust. Calpers is more than willing to defer the repayment of the principal lost, but it will not budge on the city paying for the interest those assets supposedly would be earning today.

It has become Calper’s magic wand; guaranteed assets that give a guaranteed 8-10% return. Phantom money that it lost through mismanagement of funds and political investing that cities and counties are obligated to pay for at some point, and more to the point, pay the interest on immediately.

I'm sure there's some financial genius on here that gets at least an 8% return on investment each and every year. But to do that as an institution while operating under a political agenda is a pretty far stretch. Especially with investments in green energy that has done only one thing - lost vast amounts of cash.

So, who am I rooting for in this? I'm rooting for the citizens of San Bernardino who should be, right now, bashing down the doors of city hall and demanding the city, and indeed, all of it's debts, be dissolved immediately.

Form a new city charter and incorporate again, and in the mean time, shed this outright usury from Calpers.

Oh, and a message to every other city and county in California: You can't survive this. There's no way possible for you to continue to use the Calpers charge card. The monthly payments are bankrupting your cities and counties, and you just have to say ‘enough is enough.’

Everyone needs to read this: http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/09/20/yes-we-can-break-public-employee-pensions/

Back in the “When we had the Crook Gray Davis as our Governor” period, Ole Gray and the Legislature came up with SB400 (Thanks to Gloria Romero a Beaner State Senator). CalPers then was saying that it was all the land of milk and honey for the PE pensions under its “care.” All that was needed was for the Dow to be at 28,000 back about the time in 2007 that everything turned to crap. So they are in a world of hurt because, like the rest of us, their investment returns are less than half of what they need to be in order for them to be able to pay out the exorbitant benes for which they are currently liable.
So I’d like to see them in court to “explain” their situation “fully.” My guess is that they are trying the strong arm approach with the hope that the bankrupt cities will capitulate to their demands so they don’t have to fess up to a judge. At any rate, stock up on popcorn for this one!