Nevada County Government Officials have been concerned about the rising liability of employee retirement pensions as far back as 2005.   Nevada County CEO Rick Haffey  has offered an explanation of how the County is dealing  with what he says can become a huge financial burden if not dealt with directly.

The county has begun having employees pay into part of their pensions and ha started to  put into place a new lower tier of benefits for new employees. Haffey says the county is also  taking advantage of flexibility offered by Cal Pers to control the pension liability.  he says there has been some movement on a new agreement between the Governor and legislative Republicans on some new pension reform.

click to hear Rick Haffey
Nevada County’s unfunded liability is about $119 million for pension costs and that fluctuates with the stock market and  for the county to have to pay that liability of 119 million, every employee in the county would have to retire today.
click to hear Rick Haffey 
Nevada County currently has 776 employees and is anticipating labor agreement negotiations with Local 39 in the near future. Local 39 represents about 500 county employees.