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Gov. Brown Signs California Pension Reform Bill

SACRAMENTO (CBS13/AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed into law sweeping pension changes that are projected to save taxpayers billions of dollars in the future.

The Democratic governor signed AB340 at a ceremony Wednesday in his Los Angeles office.

"This is the biggest rollback to public pension benefits in the history of California pensions," Brown said in a prepared statement. "We're lowering benefits to what they were before I was governor the first time and reducing costs by up to $55 billion in PERS and billions more in other local pension systems. Under the new rules, employers and employees alike are going to contribute their fair share of the costs, resulting in a more sustainable system."

State lawmakers last month sent Brown a series of changes to California's public pensions that will largely affect new state and local government workers.

The bill will increase the retirement age for new employees, cap the annual payout at $132,000, eliminate numerous abuses of the system and require workers who are not contributing half of their retirement costs to pay more.

Many Republican lawmakers supported the changes but said much more needs to be done to fix a system with massive liabilities for current retirees and public workers.

 

(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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