Steven Greenhut on California Embracing Pension-Spiking Bonanza
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A decision by the California Public Employees' Retirement System to engage this week in a pension-spiking extravaganza is infuriatingly brazen writes Steven Greenhut. It undermines the governor's pension-reform law. This situation — finding creative ways to increase pay as a means to gin up the salary upon which one's pension is calculated — is the classic definition of "pension spiking." Gov. Jerry Brown had railed against the practice when he signed the Public Employees' Pension Reform Act. We'll soon get to see if he is serious about defending his own pension law. Sadly, the odds that Brown will quash the CalPERS pension-spiking bonanza probably are similar to the odds that newspapers start giving out deadline pay.
