While politicians across California seem content to ignore the problem, both the cost and excesses of public sector pensions continue to grow.

Last year, nearly 23,000 retired government workers receiving a pension through the California Public Employees’ Retirement System collected pensions of at least $100,000, according to watchdog group Transparent California.

The number of CalPERS pensioners in the $100K club has grown 63 percent since 2012. Santa Clara County, Oakland, Riverside County, Long Beach and Santa Ana were the top five employers of CalPERS pensioners receiving pensions in excess of $100,000.

There were 861 Santa Clara County retirees receiving $100K pensions, 523 from Oakland, 469 from Riverside County, 360 from Long Beach and 270 from Santa Ana.

Such revelations come as CalPERS and other pension systems downgrade their long-term investment assumptions, which have remained unreasonably high, resulting in underfunding by employees and government employers.

Factoring in pension systems in addition to CalPERS, Transparent California reports nearly 53,000 public pensioners collected pensions of $100,000 or more last year.

With cities, counties, school districts and the state now playing catch-up to fund overly generous pension benefits, taxpayers are put in the unfortunate position of paying more and getting less.

Among government employers participating in CalPERS, six cities with the greatest number of retirees receiving pensions of at least $100,000 were in Los Angeles County. In addition to Long Beach, Torrance, Santa Monica, Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena made the top 25, with a combined 1,265 retired city workers receiving $100,000 plus pensions.

Among other local pension systems, the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System had about 778 retirees receiving pensions of at least $100,000, including 10 receiving over $200,000. Meanwhile, among those participating in the Water and Power Employees’ Retirement Plan, where pension and benefits average around $84,804.47, according to Transparent California, three retirees have pensions in excess of $300,000.

As long as politicians skirt the issue, we can expect pension burdens and excesses to continue for many more years.