"...aaaaaaaaaand it's gone."

[Puppycow]

Oops. It seems that while nobody was paying much attention, the University of California's pension fund went bye-bye.

Head-Thumping Chart of the Day (http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/moneyblog/)

In 1990, the university decided its pensions were overfunded. And so, they decided that neither the university nor its employees would contribute any more to the fund. Nothing. For 20 years.
. . .
How the heck does that happen? Reducing pension contributions is one thing, but cutting them to zero for 20 years? The report (PDF) issued by a task force that studied this problem is rather nonchalant on this question. It says:

"The total cessation of contributions, which seemed desirable at the time for a variety of reasons, has created a serious problem today. The absence of contributions created an illusion that the University and the State could finance the University’s growth and operations using funds that should have been contributed to UCRP. For almost twenty years, faculty and staff continued to earn additional benefits as they accumulated service credit, while no funds were being set aside to cover this growing liability."

On the bright side, they had a good 20 years of ignorant bliss. No-one can take that away from them.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/222624

[Vorticity]

OK. There's something very odd going on here.

I myself contributed to the UC pension fund out of every paycheck during the years 1998 through 2005.

I have in my possession pension fund statements verifying how much I contributed and the years in which I contributed it.

[Startz]

UC has both a defined benefit and defined contribution plan. The story refers only to the former. You probably made contributions to the defined contribution plan.

[WildCat]

Oops. It seems that while nobody was paying much attention, the University of California's pension fund went bye-bye.

Head-Thumping Chart of the Day (http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/moneyblog/)



On the bright side, they had a good 20 years of ignorant bliss. No-one can take that away from them.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/222624
That... is freaking unbelievable.

Hopefully it remains California's problem and the federal government won't come rushing to reward their irresponsibility with everyone else's tax dollars.

[rwguinn]

That... is freaking unbelievable.

Hopefully it remains California's problem and the federal government won't come rushing to reward their irresponsibility with everyone else's tax dollars.
"Don't fall in love with a dreamer
cause, he'll break you every time..."

[lomiller]

Hopefully it remains California's problem and the federal government won't come rushing to reward their irresponsibility with everyone else's tax dollars.

given how much of the federal government has been funded with California tax dollars over the last decade, wouldn't it be more accurate to say the federal government would be rushing in with Californians own tax dollars? Between 2000 and 2005 California paid ~$300 billion more in federal taxes then it received from the federal government.