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The debate over public employee pensions often centers on funding — who’s paying the tab. Taxpayer groups point to large public contributions to retirement funds. Public employees and pensioners point to their own contributions.



New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shed light on the balance among those three sources.



The top contributor to state and local pensions in 2015 in California was investment earnings, at $28.2 billion or 45 percent of incoming revenue for pension systems. Next was government contributions, generally borne by taxpayers, at $24.6 billion or 40 percent of funding. Public employee contributions totaled $9.4 billion, or 15 percent of positive revenue.



The picture varies from pension fund to pension fund. One fund for judges is 98 percent government funded. The Los Angeles Fire And Police Pension System received only 18 percent of its funding from government last year. Employees of the Turlock Irrigation District contributed 1 percent of their pension fund's revenue last year, while Los Angeles MTA employees contributed 37 percent of their pension fund's revenue— the highest in the state.