CALPERS BENEFITS UNDER QUESTION.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON Staff Writer

Inspired by a recent audit that found intentional underfunding of San Diego's pension system, Assemblyman Keith Richman said Friday that he has asked the state attorney general for an opinion on whether CalPERS has similarly violated the law by granting retroactive pension benefits to hundreds of thousands of government workers.

``California taxpayers face decades of escalating payments for the nation's most generous retiree pension and health care benefits and there is compelling evidence the California Public Employees Retirement System is manipulating actuarial assumptions to conceal the true cost of the benefits,'' Richman, R-Granada Hills, wrote in a recent letter to Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

CalPERS spokeswoman Pat Macht said officials there had not seen Richman's request and no one was available to comment Friday.

This is the third attempt Richman has made to get an investigation of the $208 billion CalPERS fund. Richman also has introduced legislation that would have required an audit of CalPERS and allowed state employees to opt for 401(k)-style retirement plans. Those efforts died in committee.

The latest request comes amid growing concern about how cities, counties and the state are going to pay for public-employee pensions and retiree health benefits amounting to $300 billion or more, Richman said.

In his letter, Richman wrote that the CalPERS board adopted a funding schedule for retroactive benefits provided by SB 400 in 2000, extending the payment schedule for those benefits past the average remaining work life of the employees eligible to receive them.

Richman has questioned projections CalPERS provided to the state during the adoption of the Senate bill that provided retroactive pension increases for state employees, lowered retirement ages, changed actuarial methods and paved the way for local agencies to do likewise.

Over a decade, Richman said CalPERS underestimated how much the pension increases would cost by $12 billion and used accounting practices that obscured the long-term costs.

Richman made his request to the attorney general based on a recent report by the Kroll Audit Committee that found intentional underfunding of the $1.4 billion San Diego pension fund.

Richman's office said the Attorney General's Office has agreed to a two-month public comment period on Richman's request. Lockyer then will issue an opinion.

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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