This Washington
Gov. Gregoire Proposes Reining In Public Pensions
First they came for the public employees. Next they came for retired public employees.
Having just approved $588 million in budget savings on Saturday, Gov. Chris Gregoire announced a new plan today to stop automatic cost-of-living increases for state retirees on PERS (and the education version, TRS 1).
Currently, the PERS 1 and TRS 1 pension systems—for people who were hired before 1977, and which serve 90,000 people who've already retired and are slated to serve 13,000 more eventual retirees—could get an average of a $600 increase every year. (The system was designed to keep pace with inflation, but in the recession, pensioners are getting a good deal, outpacing minimal inflation.)
Under Gregoire's plan, the legislature could vote for pension increases. She estimates that stopping automatic increases could save $368 million in the next biennium and $2 billion through 2015.
Gregoire also estimates she could save another $57 million over the biennium with a series of reforms to higher-ed pensions, such as reforming the retire-rehire program which currently allows state employess to retire, collect their pension, and then get rehired in higher-ed while still collecting their pension. As of August, 2010, 1359 people were taking advantage of the retire-rehire system. (Gregoire's reform would cap the number of hours a once-retired employee could work.)
Having just approved $588 million in budget savings on Saturday, Gov. Chris Gregoire announced a new plan today to stop automatic cost-of-living increases for state retirees on PERS (and the education version, TRS 1).
Currently, the PERS 1 and TRS 1 pension systems—for people who were hired before 1977, and which serve 90,000 people who've already retired and are slated to serve 13,000 more eventual retirees—could get an average of a $600 increase every year. (The system was designed to keep pace with inflation, but in the recession, pensioners are getting a good deal, outpacing minimal inflation.)
Under Gregoire's plan, the legislature could vote for pension increases. She estimates that stopping automatic increases could save $368 million in the next biennium and $2 billion through 2015.
Gregoire also estimates she could save another $57 million over the biennium with a series of reforms to higher-ed pensions, such as reforming the retire-rehire program which currently allows state employess to retire, collect their pension, and then get rehired in higher-ed while still collecting their pension. As of August, 2010, 1359 people were taking advantage of the retire-rehire system. (Gregoire's reform would cap the number of hours a once-retired employee could work.)
