Legislators must tackle Public Employee Retirement System costs
One of the biggest question marks surrounding the 2017 legislative session is this one: Will proposals to try to rein in the costs of the state's Public Employees Retirement System finally get a full and fair hearing this year?
Democratic legislators and Gov. Kate Brown have been less than enthusiastic about that task over the last few years, especially in the wake of a 2015 state Supreme Court ruling that tossed out many of the significant reforms legislators approved in 2013.
In the wake of that ruling, the line we heard from legislators was that there was little that could be done to fix the PERS problems — or certainly nothing that would put a significant dent in the huge imbalance between the fund's assets and its obligations, currently estimated at about $22 billion. And they added, even if a magic bullet existed to fix our PERS issues, it certainly wouldn't withstand another legal challenge.
So, while local governments and school districts gird for an initial set of premium increases that will cost an estimated $800 million for the two budget years beginning in July (and even larger increases in the budget cycles to come), the Legislature has shrugged off even modest attempts at reform.
Read more: http://democratherald.com/news/local/legislators-must-tackle-pers-costs/article_b6c1160d-ac3e-5ccb-b977-58e58d442d5a.html
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