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SLO County’s unfunded pension liability soaring, now over $1 billion

March 26, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo County’s unfunded pension liability is now over $1 billion primarily because of huge pay raises and large cost of living increases for retirees. Other factors include more retirees than current employees (dependency ratio), and retirees living longer.

The SLO County Pension Trust Board reported an unfunded pension debt of $1.008 billion on Jan. 1, up from $943 million a year earlier, according to the Annual Actuarial Valuation report. The county is more than $1 billion short in the trust account set aside to pay former employees their monthly pensions and benefits.

Summary of key valuation results in thousands

For every dollar the county doles out for payroll, more than 54 cents currently goes into the pension trust. This includes both employer and employee contributions.

The county pension fund generally receives money from employee contributions, employer contributions and returns on investments.

In 2023, the pension deficit grew by $65.6 million, or 6.7%.

In addition, projected employee payroll grew by 4.9% to $253.8 million. Pension trust administrators had anticipated a 3% yearly increase in payroll.

The total owed to present and past employees in retirement benefits (actuarial liability) increased more than expected primarily because of large salary increases and higher than expected cost of living raises for retirees (inflation), according to the report.

As the county’s unfunded pension liabilities soar, the number of retirees receiving more than $210,000 in pension and benefits a year is growing, according to Transparent California.

The top SLO County pensioners in 2023:

Frank Freitas, tax collector – $247,730

Jeff Hamm, health agency director – $243,719

Pat Hedges, sheriff-coroner – $219,848

Dan Hilford, assistant district attorney – $219,031

Gerald Shea, district attorney – $218,410

Gere Sibbach, auditor-controller – $213,761

Enn Mannard, medical director – $211,234

 


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Boards of Supervisors in California counties now have contests to see who can accumulate the most pension debt and still get re-elected.


24

Attention County employees! Time to get in front of this. Get a hold of your fellow workers and make a concerted effort to get in front of the County on their plan. The State and the Federal governments are also insolvent and will NOT be providing a bailout. Neither will local taxpayers.

All honest people knew this day was coming.

Don’t let the utterly incompetent managerial class that created this mess continue to ignore it.

Let’s get a solid plan. The time has come.


20

May the AI leveling be swift and furious as the ouroboros, that is the secular world locked in the age of unbridled narcissism, unceasingly consumes itself. The overwhelming majority of skilled trade workers, particularly those without generational wealth, have already rightfully fled this state over the past 5 years. CA will be far from recognizable from what it is today, inside 10 years; unfortunately, drastically worse.


19

Frank Freitas, tax collector – $247,730


Jeff Hamm, health agency director – $243,719


Pat Hedges, sheriff-coroner – $219,848


Dan Hilford, assistant district attorney – $219,031


Gerald Shea, district attorney – $218,410


Gere Sibbach, auditor-controller – $213,761


Enn Mannard, medical director – $211,234


ABSURD!!!


33

These folks receive more each year than I have been able to save for my entire (non-pension) retirement.


3

You can’t cut benefits for present and future recipients who are close to retirement that’s just not fair… but you can limit future pensions and extend the time you must be employed by the county to qualify… this is how they will extend the life of Social Security…. the way to fix this short fall is not to tax or cut… growth is the proper medicine… economic growth will solve Social Security as well…


-1

Also not fair when the pension system’s investments don’teven match the draw from the system and the system is just able to tell the taxpayers they have to make up the difference.


29

A deal is a deal… How would you like it if your benefits were chopped up?…

Fix shortfalls with growth… dump that stupid “greenbelt” and develop some land… problem solved…


-4

Companies make deals with employees all the time and then are unable to keep up there end, remember Enron, they had employees who had pension system with them, the company went bankrupt the employees lost their pensions. When the government can’t maintain the pension system changes have to be made. Fix shortfalls with reductions.


7

I’m shocked, shocked! To learn that tax and spend government is inefficient!


34

$1 Billion??? ABSURD!!!


35

Just like social security but on a smaller scale, a big promise made in the past where the bill is due today. Three options 1. Cut benefits for present and future recipients, 2. Raise taxes/contribution rates, 3. Both one and two!


6

From ChatGPT:


To assess how this liability compares to other California counties, it’s insightful to look at per capita unfunded pension liabilities. For instance, San Luis Obispo County’s per capita liability is approximately $3,950, calculated by dividing the total unfunded liability by the county’s population of around 238,000.​


In contrast, other counties exhibit varying per capita liabilities:​


Los Angeles County: Approximately $3,120 per capita.​


San Bernardino County: Around $2,440 per capita.​


Orange County: About $2,220 per capita.​


San Diego County: Nearly $2,070 per capita.​


Riverside County: Approximately $1,920 per capita.​


These figures suggest that San Luis Obispo County’s unfunded pension liability per resident is significantly higher compared to these larger counties. This disparity may result from differences in pension benefit structures, investment returns, demographic profiles, and fiscal management strategies.​


Moreover, when considering the percentage of the county’s budget allocated to unfunded pension liabilities, San Luis Obispo County’s liability accounts for about 30% of its budget, indicating a substantial fiscal commitment. 


9

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, SLO County’s population is approximately 282,000.


2

The problem with your per capita assessment is that those counties are under Cal Pers, they are not honest about the pension amount of unfunded liability!

For instance Cal Pers claimed that the pension liability for San Bernadino County was underfunded by 2.7 Billion, Stanford economist Joe Nation clamed it is actually 12 Billion!!

San Luis Obispo County is not part of Cal Pers!!!

Send in Musk!!!!


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