The cost of shoring up Calpers, the troubled $200 billion pension fund for California public employees, will ultimately fall on the state's 38 million residents, who are already dealing with tax increases and reduced public services.

The state and local governments are contractually bound to increase their payments to Calpers to help it make up for its investment losses of more than $50 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30.

For the 2009-2010 fiscal year, Mr. Crane said the state had to spend an additional $3.3 billion from its general-fund budget to make up for Calpers's poor performance.

Ontario's annual payments of $8.2 million to Calpers are expected to increase by another $6 million, or 75%, by 2015 to help cover the investment losses, Mr. Devereaux said. "If there's a shortfall in Calpers, we're the ones who have to pay for it. And any shortfall reduces the level of services we can provide," he said.