As local lawmakers brace for yet another round of budget cuts to make up for chronic shortfalls trickling down from Sacramento, some are pointing to burgeoning public pension liabilities as a looming financial disaster.
Over the past decade, California's unfunded public pension and health care liability has soared from zero to nearly $60 billion, and experts warn that unless costs are cut and policies change, that number could increase dramatically in coming years.
"We're long overdue on a challenge to the benefit laws on public employees," said Marcia Fritz, a California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility board member.
While many public pension funds are self-sustaining, meaning they have sufficient assets to

(Jennifer Cappuccio-Maher/Staff Photographer)
cover all liabilities, an increasing number of funds are finding themselves coming up short.
California's fund, for example, had assets equal to 118 percent of its liabilities in 1999. In 2008, however, its assets equaled only 89 percent of its liabilities, according to a February study by the Pew Center on the