A California Supreme Court decision three years ago was supposed to be the final word on former Gov. Jerry Brown’s marquee pension limit law, but judges are still sorting it out — and making decisions that could mean thousands of dollars a year to government retirees.
Last week a state appeals court affirmed a Ventura County Employees’ Retirement Association’s decision undoing a perk that had allowed government workers to increase their pensions in a way banned by Brown’s 2013 law.
The changes add up. Ventura’s retirement fund has estimated that some retirees could lose a couple hundred dollars a month once it complies with the pension law and begins adjusting its vacation “cash-out” policy and striking some other incentives, according to the Ventura County Star.
Some of those affected retirees are urging the pension board to instead apply the new rules only to people who left civil service after 2020 — when the state Supreme Court upheld Brown’s law — rather than when the law itself took effect a decade ago. That’s in keeping with policies several other retirement boards have adopted.
“This can be the difference between whether they eat or pay a utility bill or purchase a…
