Governor gets partial win in state pension reforms

Gov. Jerry Brown has announced systematic reforms to California’s badly underfunded public pension system that he says will save taxpayers billions of dollars over time.

Yet the governor failed to persuade lawmakers in his own party to give him some of the key changes he had requested last fall.

The reform deal the Democratic governor announced Tuesday does not include a 401(k)-style plan, greater independence for the board that oversees the state’s main pension fund or a reduction in retiree health care costs.

Nevertheless, Brown hailed the deal as a landmark achievement and said it will make pension benefits for public employees lower than they were during his first term in office, in 1975.

He said the agreement assures that California’s pension system will be “sustainable for the long term.”

The state’s two main pension funds, the nation’s largest, have an unfunded liability of at least $150 billion.