How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
SACRAMENTO – The state’s cost for retiree health and dental benefits has grown to $76.68 billion, according to a report published today by State Controller Betty T. Yee.
The liability represents the present-day cost to provide retiree health and dental benefits earned as of June 30, 2016 – one of the state’s largest long-term debts.
The total liability grew $2.49 billion compared to the prior fiscal year, but the size of the increase was $1.45 billion less than estimated in last year’s report.
Health care claims did not grow as rapidly as expected, and changes in health care delivery helped to lower costs by $3.78 billion.
Conversely, demographic shifts and changes in assumptions about long-term health trends added $2.33 billion to the liability.
These costs have increased dramatically over the past 15 years. In 2001, retiree health care costs accounted for 0.6 percent of the state General Fund budget. This year, they will total $1.92 billion, or about 1.5 percent of the budget (FY 16-17).
“One of the greatest fiscal challenges facing California is the mounting cost of providing health care benefits to public sector workers,” said Controller Yee, the state’s chief fiscal officer and a board member of CalPERS and CalSTRS. “Through collective bargaining, there is positive progress towards the long-term security and sustainability of retiree health benefits. Barring drastic cuts into other public spending, these changes will not happen overnight but, in time, our long-term liabilities will be paid down.”
State pensions are prefunded with contributions from employees and the state, allowing investment returns to significantly reduce liabilities.
By contrast, California has traditionally paid for retiree health benefits on a pay-as-you-go basis, covering costs as they come due.
Gov. Jerry Brown, in contract negotiations with public employee unions, is moving toward a prefunding approach to health benefits more like that used for public employee pension funds.
Under standards created by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), state and local governments have been reporting the costs of retiree health care and Other Postemployment Benefits (OPEB) in notes to their financial statements.
Starting next fiscal year (17-18), a new GASB standard requires state and local governments to report OPEB liabilities and expenses in their financial statements.
Many, like California, are expected to report substantial liabilities for retiree health care and the annual expense, and OPEB liability amounts will likely become much more volatile.
The OPEB report provides estimates of California’s obligation for retiree health and dental coverage based on different funding scenarios:
· The current pay-as-you-go policy results in a liability of $76.68 billion. The shortcomings of this method are evident. While the current fiscal year’s budget sets aside $1.92 billion to cover just actual costs, a true accounting of existing and future costs would have required $5.77 billion.
· If the state shifted to fully prefunding future benefits, the liability for the current fiscal year would have been cut by 34 percent to $50.29 billion. To take advantage of the significant reduction in liability from fully prefunding, the state would have needed to contribute $4.11 billion in FY 2016-17, or $2.19 billion more than it budgeted.
In Gov. Brown’s contract negotiations, he has asked unions to agree to make contributions to retiree health costs.
Approved by members last week, the proposed contract for state government’s biggest union, SEIU 1000, would phase in payroll deductions for retiree health care over several years.
Contract negotiations also have included extending the period to qualify for retiree health benefits and reducing the employer subsidy for retiree health coverage.
Even these incremental steps can meaningfully reduce the state’s liability, according to Yee.
For example, prefunding just 10 percent of the annual service cost, in excess of pay-as-you-go expenses, would increase current annual costs by $260 million but reduce the total unfunded liability over time by $3.37 billion.
Prefunding 50 percent would cost $990 million more each year but ultimately result in savings of $13.52 billion in the unfunded liability.
Controller Yee noted that CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension fund and largest public employer purchaser of health benefits in California, offers an optional California Employers’ Retiree Benefit Trust Fund to help employers fund retiree health benefits. More than 500 California public employers currently participate in the fund.
Last year’s state budget included a one‑time allocation of $240 million to the trust fund.
The state has approximately $400 million set aside in the prefunding trust fund to pay for future retiree health benefits.
According to the California Department of Finance, by June 2018 the trust fund balance will more than double and approach $1 billion.
The actuarial report can be found on the Controller’s Web site at www.sco.ca.gov .
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center will host the opening night of its new “Driven to Abstraction” exhibit on Saturday, Jan. 28.
A reception will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the center, located at 21456 Highway 175, at the junction of Highways 29 and 175.
This new exhibit will highlight a variety of abstract art works that do not represent external reality but work through shapes, form, color and texture.
Saturday’s opening reception also will include live music by members of The Middlemen band and screenings of work by experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage in the classroom-studio area of the MAC.
Refreshments and wine will be available to enjoy.
The exhibit runs through March 5. Art exhibits at MAC change approximately every six weeks.
“The exhibitions and caliber of work keep getting better,” said MAC Director Lisa Kaplan. “It’s really exciting to curate the shows and see it all come together. This will be our fifteenth exhibit since MAC first opened in March 2015. Each exhibit has focused on a different theme and showcased work by Lake County contemporary artists. We invite everyone to come out and join us at our openings, which are always a terrific local cultural event, or to visit the gallery during regular business hours.”
The Middletown Art Center is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to providing artistic and cultural opportunities to the residents and visitors of south Lake County while contributing to the community’s health and economic vitality.
MAC offers an array of memberships, child and adult art classes and performance opportunities. The center is open Thursdays, noon to 6 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 7 p.m.; and Sundays, 1 to 6 p.m. or by appointment.
MAC accepts donations online at www.Middletownartcenter.org .
LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Saturday, Jan. 21, the Clear Lake Cardinals entered wrestlers into two separate tournaments.
Four boys headed off to the 18th annual King of the Mat in Windsor and four girls went to the fifth annual Lady Eagle Invitational, held at Del Oro High School in Loomis.
The King of the Mat, one of the tougher tournaments held in the North Coast Sections, proved to be so once again.
Justin Cantrell (154 lbs.) won a silver medal in the bronze division bracket going 2-2 on the day, unfortunately injuring his elbow in his finals match, possibly putting an end to his very successful first year of wrestling.
Frankie Sturr (128 lbs.) went 1-2 with one pin, with one of his losses against the No. 1 seed and eventual champion.
Brandon Dickey (140 lbs.) and Thomas Lairson (122 lbs.) also wrestled some tough matches in the tournament for the Cardinals.
At the Lady Eagle Invitational tournament in the Sac Joaquin Section, Mavis Pyorre (113 lbs.) took fourth place in the varsity bracket, going 2-2 with one pin.
Unseeded in the tournament, Pyorre went on to beat the No. 2 seed from Bear Creek 9 to 0, then lost a close battle to the wrestler (from Cordova) who advanced from the No. 3 seed.
A little banged up, Pyorre went on to pin the No. 4 seed from El Capitan and advance to battle for third place, against the No. 2 seed again. She controlled the first period but there were no points scored.
In the second period Pyorre took a shot to the head and used up most of her injury time, now down by two.
In the third period Pyorre came back taking the lead, almost pinning her opponent, who then slipped out. Pyorre took another bang to the head and was out of time and lost by injury default to take fourth.
Merari Alvarez (162 lbs.) won the silver medal in the novice bracket going 3-2 with two pins.
Along the way Merari got her first win by pin against a Christian Brothers wrestler, then beat a Del Oro wrestler 6-2, fell to a wrestler from Whitney, pinned an opponent from Will C. Wood and came up just short against a wrestler from Casa Robles.
Also wrestling some hard-fought matches for the Cardinals were Mackenzie Markham (103 lbs., varsity division) and Scarlett Ballard (123 lbs., novice division).
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Dr. Stephen Pollaine, a noted Lake County physicist, cosmologist and pianist, will speak at the Taylor Observatory’s monthly public night event on Saturday, Jan. 28, at 8 p.m.
The Taylor Observatory is at 5725 Oak Hills Lane in Kelseyville.
The observatory opens at 7:15 p.m. A planetarium show beginning at 7:30 p.m. precedes the talk, and telescopic views are available until 11 p.m.
Pollaine will address a compelling topic, “Is There a Deeper Reality Beyond the Physical World?”
In the talk he explores the question of defining human consciousness. Hoffman’s Interface Theory of Perception, according to Pollaine, presents the idea that there is more to consciousness than science knows.
Dr. Pollaine received his Ph. D. in astrophysics from U. C. Berkeley followed by a 31-year career at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, working in fusion energy research. His avocation is the piano.
Public nights at the Taylor Observatory include the lecture, a planetarium show and, weather permitting, astronomical viewing through the observatory’s several telescopes.
Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children under 12.
Friends of the Taylor Observatory sponsors the lecture series.
Contact FOTO President Bill Haddon at 707 262-4121 or 415 209-3084 for further information.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Konocti Education Center in Clearlake and the Lake County Theater Co. are teaming up to sell raffle tickets to benefit theater around the lake.
The grand prize is two tickets to the musical, “Hamilton,” at the SHN Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco on May 20 at 2 p.m.
Ticket donations are $10 per ticket.
Two winners will be selected and each will receive two tickets in the drawing to be held on April 20. Winners need not be present to win.
Tickets can be purchased at the Konocti Education Center, 15850 Dam Road Extension, Clearlake, or Chris Kinney at
The Konocti Education Center is a fourth through eighth grade visual and performing arts school in the Konocti Unified School District.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – One person was injured early Tuesday morning when a vehicle crashed into a Clearlake home.
Just after 2 a.m. Tuesday firefighters were dispatched to two calls one right after another – the first, in which a two-vehicle crash was reported and the second involving a vehicle into a house, according to radio traffic.
Firefighters arriving at the scene reported that the two incidents were one and the same.
Clearlake Police Sgt. Tim Hobbs said a white 1993 BMW M3 that was driving south on Old Highway 53 crashed into the residence at the southwest corner of the intersection of Ridgeview Drive and Old Highway 53.
Hobbs said the driver fled the scene.
He said one occupant of the house was transported to the hospital for a complaint of pain.
On social media Clearlake resident Matt Nelson said the damaged home was his, and the person injured was his mother-in-law. He said she was released from the hospital on Tuesday morning.
The vehicle that hit his house also hit a van he had parked near the home. Nelson said a vehicle involved in a pursuit with law enforcement crashed into his garage in May.
Nelson's online posts blamed the nearby roadway design and conditions for the crash.
Email Elizabeth Larson at