{"id":470683,"date":"2026-09-21T07:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T07:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/470683\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T07:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T07:40:17","slug":"newsom-vetoes-bill-to-increase-pensions-for-police-firefighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/470683\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsom vetoes bill to increase pensions for police, firefighters"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Ashton<\/a>, CalMatters<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\""A\"
\n\t\t\t\tNewly sworn in California Highway Patrol officers following their graduation ceremony at the CHP Academy in Sacramento on Sept. 13, 2024. Photo by Florence Middleton, CalMatters<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

Unions for California police and firefighters came close to sweetening retirement benefits for their members, but the memory of California\u2019s pension crisis<\/a> ultimately was too much for Gov. Gavin Newsom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newsom on Sunday vetoed a bill that would have enhanced retirement perks for police and firefighters despite near-unanimous support from state lawmakers<\/a> and heavy pressure from public safety unions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newsom in his veto message wrote the bill would partly reverse a 2012 law that former Gov. Jerry Brown<\/a> championed when California\u2019s major funds were spiraling from Great Recession losses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s law, the Public Employees Pension Reform Act<\/a> (PEPRA), required civil servants to work longer to earn a full retirement and pay more money<\/a> from their own paychecks toward their pensions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI still recall \u2014 before PEPRA\u2019s passage in 2012 \u2014 the alarming forecasts, the fierce criticism of public employees, and the growing pressure to eliminate defined benefit plans all together,\u201d Newsom wrote. \u201cThis is an era of California history I do not wish to repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s pension law led to a significant change in retirement for public safety employees. It requires them to work until age 57 to retire instead of 50. It adjusted their retirement formula from 3% a year to 2.7% a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Police and firefighters unions today say 57 is too late because of the toll their careers take on their bodies and their exposure to hazards. They backed Assembly Bill 1383<\/a>, which would have lowered their retirement age to 55.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAB 1383 gives us something important: Two more years with our families,\u201d California Professional Firefighters President Darrell Roberts said last week at a rally with hundreds of police firefighters on the Capitol steps.<\/p>\n

But the bill by Democratic Assemblymember Tina McKinnor <\/a>of Inglewood would have done more than just lower the retirement age. It also would have increased the cap on pension earnings that Brown\u2019s law imposed and would have allowed public safety unions to negotiate more lucrative pension formulas as high as 3% per year of service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those changes would have driven up costs for California government employers such as cities and counties by hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to estimates from the California Public Employees\u2019 Retirement System.\u00a0<\/p>\n

California cities and counties opposed the bill because of the potential costs.<\/p>\n

The bill \u201crepresents the greatest long-term financial threat to the sustainability of cities in years,\u201d La Verne City Manager Ken Domer said in a recent interview with CalMatters.<\/p>\n

A coalition of cities, counties and special districts issued a statement commending Newsom’s veto. <\/p>\n

“At a time of severe fiscal uncertainty and growing demand for services, it is more important than ever for state leaders to help control costs,” the statement read.<\/p>\n

McKinnor\u2019s bill had overwhelming bipartisan support. It passed the Senate 33-0 and the Assembly 69-2.<\/p>\n

Several lawmakers spoke at the rally last week, where firefighters held signs that read \u201cFirefighters deserve a safe retirement\u201d and police carried ones that read \u201cKeep California safe. Recruit. Retain. Sign AB 1383\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic Assemblywoman Stephanie Nguyen<\/a> of Elk Grove told the crowd, \u201cThis is just the beginning. After we get this signed, we will do more. We will fight for more to show you that we appreciate you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts of California Professional Firefighters in a statement Sunday said the union was “deeply disappointed” in Newsom’s veto. <\/p>\n

“To every CPF\u202fmember, this fight is not over.\u202f I made a commitment to you all;\u202f we will\u202fkeep fighting for retirement security, and we will stand together,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Adam Ashton, CalMatters Newly sworn in California Highway Patrol officers following their graduation ceremony at the CHP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6980,7,9,8,457,13934,734,53553,5476],"class_list":["post-470683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-cal-fire","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-jerry-brown","tag-law-enforcement","tag-pensions","tag-unions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}