Recently, an administrative panel decided to roll back changes to public employee pensions. The Los Angeles council is not pleased with this decision, as these changes were expected to save local municipalities as much as $4.3 billion over the next 30 years. A spokesman for Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city will appeal the administrative decision.
The city’s Employee Relations Board concluded recently that when the council approved the pension changes in 2012, they did not properly consult with municipal employee unions. They then voted 5-0 to roll back the changes the council agreed on in 2012.
Garcetti’s office says that the mayor disagreed with the ruling by the Employee Relations Board, though no details were given exactly why.
The pension changes that were implemented by the council in 2012 were part of a national movement of state and local governments looking to reduce pension benefits and whittle down unfunded promises to retirees. A research group showed that these unfunded promises added up to an estimated $1 trillion at the time. They also concluded that the funding gap for pension plans ballooned 14 percent in just two years between 2010 and 2012.
Read more about the rollback here.