By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times
With the stroke of a pen in 1999, California Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation that gave prison guards, park rangers, Cal State professors and other state employees the kind of retirement security normally reserved for the wealthy.
More than 200,000 civil servants became eligible to retire at 55 — and in many cases collect more than half their highest salary for life. California Highway Patrol officers could retire at 50 and receive as much as 90 percent of their peak pay for as long as they lived.
Read the complete story at CALmatters.
Jack Dolan is a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times. Judy Lin, a reporter at CALmatters, contributed to this story. This story is part of an ongoing project involving the Los Angeles Times, CALmatters and Capital Public Radio.
