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Brown discloses pension details

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Speculation that Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown had positioned himself to receive an extra fat pension went viral online earlier this month, helped by this report in the Orange County Register. Brown’s campaign said such projections were flawed and eventually disclosed that the pension of the 72-year-old candidate, who is now the state attorney general and previously served as state governor and mayor of Oakland, would be less than $80,000 annually.

Brown’s GOP opponent, Meg Whitman, expressed skepticism of that number and called on Brown to release official documents backing it up.

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On Thursday evening, Brown’s campaign produced what it says is an official document from the California State Employees’ Retirement System that appears to confirm he is not entitled to any wildly inflated retirement plan. It shows Brown’s total pension payment would be $79,530. Click here to see the document.

[UPDATED 6:56 p.m: Astute readers of the document will notice that Brown appears to be entitled to at least $12,000 more each year under the pension formulas. Brown’s campaign explained that he would not get that money because he has opted to keep his wife, former Gap executive Anne Gust Brown, on the plan as a survivor -- she would continue to collect his pension should she outlive him. Brown’s selection of that option lowers the amount of the cash payment.]

-- Evan Halper in Sacramento

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