Jerry Brown plans to take on state’s retiree health debt

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Gov. Jerry Brown plans to tackle the state’s unfunded retiree health costs in his budget proposal next month in hopes of reducing a fast-growing obligation that ballooned by $7 billion in just the past year, a spokesman for his finance department said.

California has promised $72 billion more in health and dental benefits to current and retired state workers than the state has set aside, a liability that grew 11 percent from 2013, according to a recent report by the state controller’s office.

The new estimate prompted outgoing Controller John Chiang to call on lawmakers to eliminate the “pay as you go model” where the state pays only the cost of providing coverage to retired workers instead of allocating funds for benefits that current public employees will get when they retire. Chiang likened the state’s system to continually paying the minimum amount on a credit card as the balance and interest soar.

These aren't small numbers.