Senate Republicans call for veto override on PERS bill
By Oregon Senate Republicans,Salem, OR – Oregon Senate Republicans are calling for an immediate veto override of Senate Bill 897 when the legislature convenes in February. Republicans believe that this bill is crucial to protecting public employees from unfair retirement calculation errors. The bill passed the Senate 28 – 0 in the 2009 legislative session.
"'It's time to stop letting bureaucrats dump liability for their mistakes onto the backs of citizens,” said Senator Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day). “Under a policy advanced by the current administration and defended by Governor Ted Kulongoski’s veto, if bureaucrats screw up, retirees lose. If they complain, the government says, 'You trusted us? Too bad.'" The bill is intended to protect fairness and encourage accountability in Oregon’s Public Employee Retirement System (PERS). The bill allows more PERS retirees to purchase health insurance benefits, allows all eligible service to be credited towards retirement, and allows a retiree to occupy the Board position designated for a PERS member.
Most importantly, the bill demands that data used to calculate retirement benefits be verified by state officials and locked in. In the past, the discovery of misapplied formulas has changed benefit calculations after the fact, leaving retirees with lower retirement income than their plan selection promised.
In some cases, retirees have been ordered to pay back the difference months after the error, upending retirement plans and forcing some workers out of retirement.
“While many people believe we still have a long way to go with PERS reforms, almost no one but Governor Kulongoski believes retirees should pay for state agency math errors,” said Ferrioli. “Overriding this veto is the right thing to do."
The veto override will be among the first orders of business when the legislature convenes on February 1st.
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In some cases, retirees have been ordered to pay back the difference months after the error, upending retirement plans and forcing some workers out of retirement.
“While many people believe we still have a long way to go with PERS reforms, almost no one but Governor Kulongoski believes retirees should pay for state agency math errors,” said Ferrioli. “Overriding this veto is the right thing to do."
The veto override will be among the first orders of business when the legislature convenes on February 1st.
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PERS is a corrupt system from top to bottom, why would anyone want to do anything but radically change it before it bankrupts the state? First order of business February 1st should be to assess the damage the new rates will impose upon local jurisdictions and especially school districts. PERS is unsustainable and will either be reformed now or it will reform itself in a catastrophic manner down the road.
Ferrioli sees no common sense in paying back what was mistakenly given? Tell that to a bank the next time they make an error. How about the taxpayers when the state underestimates a project cost? Do we get our money back? Sure bureaucrats screw up but why allow special treatment for retired state employees? Speaking of screw ups, who voted for this in the first place? A 28-0 vote means they all did. Go ahead and give back your pay for doing such a lousy job. That's fair.
Even Republican politicians don't get it anymore.
I only made about 75K when I "worked".
Luckily I got out before all the court decisions - you can't do this anymore.
Oregon - we love dreamers.
On what planet? Look, at some point it has to be realized PERS is a retirement system, not a lottery winning.
In every other facet of life, taxes, a mortgage whatever, if there is a screw up discovered you have to pay it back no matter which side of the equation you are on. No one is asking PERS retirees to pay for the mistakes of others. They simply shouldn't be allowed to benefit from the mistakes of others and that's what we are talking about here.
If there is a miscalculation in benefits and that mistake is not discovered until later, the proposition that a PERS retiree should get to profit from that mistake as a matter of law is absurd. PERS is more than lucrative enough for those who benefit from it. The idea that those who are already riding a cash cow should benefit from any mistake made is a little absurd.
This sounds like one good thing Ted has done.
All SB 897 does is to move the audit up to before retirement rather than after. Once the audit is done and the benefit certified, PERS can no longer came back and report errors. It puts the burden of proof on PERS rather than on the member.
Still, this is less of a priority than a complete PERS overhaul before we are bankrupt.
[Now where do I find "Tea Party" on the voter registration card?]
And, the bill gives PERS until 2011 to figure out how to implement this. There are simply too many sloppy errors that PERS makes when a person retires for anyone to have confidence in the figures PERS provides. Retirees should get what they are allowed - no more and no less. This is intended to restore confidence that the benefits are calculated correctly and that PERS won't come back later and say, oopsie, we made a little mistakey-poo. You owe us $100,000.
PERS calculations are incredibly complicated for the average person. The information PERS provides are not always transparent and the calculations not always obvious. Now, the burden is on the individual to determine whether PERS' calculations are initially right or wrong. SB 897 makes the responsibility belong to PERS, where it rightfully belongs.
No retiree will get any benefit to which he/she is not legally entitled. This bill just ensures that the retiree's calculations are correct to begin with.