SCEPA's Deficit Commission Project

Dedicated to providing a full debate on the issues of economic recovery, the deficit, and responsible tax policy, SCEPA has initiated its Deficit Commission Project to track and respond to President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, along with the many other expert groups offering economic and budgetary reform models for the short- and long-term. As this issue advances, we will post responses and analysis by SCEPA economists, while building a catalog of mainstream and non-mainstream comments and proposals.

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Retirement Security Background

Ghilarducci's Retirement Plan Introduced in California Senate

Los Angeles Times George Skelton's column in today's LA Times announces "A Retirement Plan for the Forgotten." This new plan, introduced in the California State Senate by Senator Keven DeLeon, would create a pension plan for California’s private sector workers that do not have access to a retirement plan through their employer. This personal pension program would be a not-for-profit, low-cost and universally portable retirement plan for the millions of Californians that do not have a workplace retirement plan.

The legislation is co-sponsored by Senate Leader Darell Steinberg. "It's a very important bookend to the pension debate," Steinberg says. "The debate in society is 'Why should some folks get a [traditional pension] when the majority no longer do?' This asks a different question: 'Why shouldn't we strive to bring everyone up to a reasonable and decent level of retirement security?'

The plan is based on SCEPA's "State GRA" proposal, authored by labor economist and retirement expert Teresa Ghilarducci. The proposal was also recently endorsed in New York City by City Comptroller John Liu.