The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a California taxpayer group's case trying to prevent the further implementation of the $186 million CalSavers Retirement Savings Program, Sacramento, according to the court's order list posted Monday.
CalSavers is a defined contribution plan for workers in the private sector in California who do not have access to a retirement plan sponsored by their employers. So far, CalSavers has 233,623 actively funded accounts and more than 30,000 employers have registered, said Katie Selenski, executive director, in an email.
The Supreme Court's denial of review preserves Californians' ability "to save for their futures through this portable, simple option," said California state Treasurer Fiona Ma, who chairs the CalSavers Retirement Savings Board, in a news release. "Without this program, and programs like it across the country, millions of Americans would be left behind."
In May, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed with a lower court's decision to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association without leave to amend its complaint. The association had sued to permanently halt the plan's implementation and prevent its board from spending taxpayer money on it, arguing that the state program is pre-empted by federal law.
"HJTA is very disappointed for all of California's private employees and taxpayers," the association said in a written statement. "It is clear that Congress intended to protect their workplace retirement savings with ERISA's nationally uniform fiduciary standards, something the CalSavers IRA program expressly declines to provide."
