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California court: public employees can't 'spike' pensions

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Rich Pedroncelli/AP
FILE - In this Oct. 27, 2011, file photo, Gov. Jerry Brown gestures to a chart showing some of his proposals to rollback public employee pension benefits during a news conference at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. California's decades-old protections for public employees' retirement benefits are not enough to bar state lawmakers from enacting reforms designed to prevent abuses such as "pension spiking," the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday, July 30, 2020. The state's high court last year unanimously upheld the 2012 pension reform law championed by Brown that stripped away public workers' option to pay for more years of service to increase their pension benefits once they retire. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
Jerry Brown
Posted at 2:18 PM, Jul 30, 2020
and last updated 2020-07-30 17:18:46-04

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Supreme Court says public employees can’t pad their pensions by working extra hours and cashing out unused vacation and sick leave just before retiring.

The court ruled unanimously Thursday that so-called pension spiking is not protected under state law that holds that retirement benefits, once promised, cannot be touched.

The high court said a 2013 law designed to keep certain benefits from padding employees’ pensions was intended to close loopholes and prevent pension abuse.

Michael Colantuono is an attorney for the League of California Cities and says the ruling is a big win for local government trying to control escalating pension costs.

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