By Chuck Reed, includes "To better understand the current crisis, we must go back 17 years to when the fuse was lit. In 1999, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 400, which granted retroactive pension increases to state employees. Back then, CalPERS had a surplus and was able to persuade lawmakers that state pension costs would not increase for a decade because the benefits would be paid with investment earnings. CalPERS claimed that it could be done "without it costing a dime of additional taxpayer money." Of course, its prediction turned out to be dead wrong..."