Research Brief - Understanding Public Pensions in Sonoma County - RESEARCH BRIEF

This brief examines pension benefits for public servants in Sonoma County in terms of their role in employee compensation, the evolving financial status of pension systems, the impact of pension reform on costs, and how different pensions within the county stack up against each other in terms of protection from inflation during retirement. [...] In Sonoma County, K-12 teachers and other educators are covered by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), County of Sonoma (i.e., county government) employees and Sonoma Valley Fire District employees are covered by the Sonoma County Employee Retirement Association (SCERA), and most other state and local government employees are covered by the California Public Employee Retire. [...] This brief examines pension benefits for public servants in Sonoma County in terms of their role in employee compensation, the evolving financial status of pension systems, the impact of pension reform on costs, and how different pension systems in the county and surrounding Bay Area region stack up against each other in terms of protection from inflation during retirement. [...] The smoothed value of assets reflects SCERA’s “Valuation Value of Assets.” Understanding Public Pensions in Sonoma County | Nari Rhee 8 Funding Ratio Discount Rate Funding discipline is a key reason that SCERA has steadily improved its funding ratio since the Great Recession: the contribution history in SCERA valuations shows that the County of Sonoma and other employers participating in the retir. [...] All of these employees—except for employees of the County of Sonoma, the Sonoma County Superior Court, and the Sonoma Valley Fire District—have pension benefits with a guaranteed annual COLA.18 COLAs for public employees in the region are typically tied to inflation with a maximum annual increase of 2%.19 Except for CalSTRS, these public pension systems provide a compounding COLA, in which each ye.