Gov. Jerry Brown has removed a California State Teachers’ Retirement System board appointee who helped author a controversial study that criticized the state’s largest public pension funds.

Brown’s predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, appointed Cameron Percyto the CalSTRS board on Dec. 30. As a graduate student at Stanford, Percy was part of a team that wrote, “Going For Broke: Reforming California’s Public Employee Pension Systems. “Schwarzenegger often referenced the report’s highly disputed claim that California’s Big Three pension systems — including CalSTRS — faced a collective $500 billion in unfunded liabilities.

Brown’s spokesman said coldly: “These appointees served at the pleasure of the governor and their services were no longer required.”  Read the full story here.

When Brown took over, there was some hope that given the slim chance of a second term, Brown would make the tough decisions and try to change the systemic problems facing California.  Instead, he’s using the Unions to fund the ballot initiative and hasn’t touched them in his proposed budget while at the same time trying to eliminate the Enterprise Program which is proven to stimulate job creation.  By wedding himself to the Unions early on, he’s tainted his ability to make it seem as if his proposed budget is anything other than the usual pandering to the union lobbyists.  It’s unfortunate for Brown’s legacy and for California, it may be very costly as well especially if the unions are able to drive business out of the state by eliminating the Enterprise Zone Program.