CalSTRS officials say controversies at the state's other big pension fund, CalPERS, will complicate the already difficult task of persuading theLegislature to raise pension contributions for teacher retirements.
Staggered by a 25 percent loss in the last fiscal year, the board of the California State Teachers' Retirement System began crafting a strategy Friday to petition lawmakers for higher rates.
The investment loss left CalSTRS some $42 billion underfunded as of last June – an estimate of how much additional cash the fund needs to pay its bills over the next 30 years. The amount of underfunding doubled in about 12 months.
Although there's no immediate crisis, CalSTRS Deputy Chief Executive Ed Derman said the financial problem will only worsen the longer the fund waits to ramp up contributions. CalSTRS gets more than $6.6 billion in annual contributions from the state, school districts and teachers. About $1.6 billion of that comes from the state.
Unlike CalPERS, which has the authority to impose rate hikes, the teachers' retirement system