Newsom Vetoes Bill Letting Police and Firefighters Retire at 55, Siding With Cities Over Pension Costs

A bill that would have let California police officers and firefighters retire two years earlier is dead, despite passing the Legislature with almost no opposition.

What the bill would have done

Assembly Bill 1383, written by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, a Democrat from Inglewood, would have lowered the retirement age for newer public safety workers from 57 to 55, CalMatters reported. It would also have raised the cap on pensionable earnings and let unions bargain for pension formulas as high as 3% of pay per year of service, up from the current 2.7%.

Those rules come from the Public Employees' Pension Reform Act, or PEPRA, a 2012 law pushed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown after the Great Recession battered the state's pension funds. It made most workers hired after 2013 work longer and pay more toward their own retirement.

Why Newsom said no

In his veto message, issued Sunday, Sept. 20, Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote that the bill would partly reverse PEPRA. He recalled the alarming forecasts and pressure to scrap traditional pensions before that law passed, calling it "an era of California history I do not wish to repeat."

The California Public Employees' Retirement System estimated the changes would have raised costs for cities and counties by hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to CalMatters. A coalition including the California State Association of Counties and the League of California Cities said the bill would have added billions in new costs and liabilities over the coming decades, and thanked Newsom for the veto.

The other side

Unions argued 57 is too old for jobs that wear down the body and expose workers to hazards. The bill passed the Senate 33-0 and the Assembly 69-2. California Professional Firefighters President Darrell Roberts said the union was "deeply disappointed" and vowed to keep fighting for retirement security.

Why it matters locally

Pension bills are among the biggest fixed costs for Bay Area cities already weighing tax measures and service cuts. For now, safety employees hired under PEPRA keep the age-57 rule.