Santa Clara’s average pension dropped to $72,210 from $77,696 in 2016, according to CalPERS data compiled by Transparent California*.
However, the number of pensions over $100,000 has tripled to 226 in 2016 from 75 in 2015. The number of pensions topping $200,000 grew to 7 in 2016, from 3 in 2015.
The median per capita income in Santa Clara is $43,000, according to 2015 numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Santa Clara, though, has yet to join CalPERS over-250K pension club, which currently has 31 members, or the over-300K club, which has six members.
Topping the 300K-plus pension list is a former Solano County employee, whose job title isn’t given in the CalPERS data. Solano’s County’s 2015 per capita income was $29,185.
Second and sixth place are taken by Los Angeles County Sanitation District No. 2 employees, with pensions of $345,417 and $303,423. In third place is a former UCLA employee at $345,180. Fifth place is taken by a retired Sacramento State president, with a $323,661 pension.
Public employees do not receive Social Security benefits unless they have worked for private businesses, and then only based on their earnings in the private sector.
The California Controller’ website (www.sco.ca.gov) provides raw data for export and selective data through its By The Numbers (bythenumbers.sco.ca.gov) interactive page.
*Transparent California is operated by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, and describes itself as a “non-partisan … think tank that promotes policy ideas consistent with the principles of limited government, individual liberty and free markets.”
So while reporting this data it would be helpful to indicate which classifications were paid so well. I see Santa Clara just hired a new city manager at a price tag of 700,000+ per year. For what?