Store Research
Multistate Legislative Pension Reforms
March 14, 2011
Some bill research does not include the Governor's file because at the time we researched the bill, the sitting Governor had not released his chaptered bill file. If the Governor's file is not included with this particular research, please contact our office (1-530-666-1917 or quote@legintent.com) and we will be happy to provide this file at no charge if it is available. Please Note: Governor files did not exist prior to 1943.
Governors are proposing legislative pension reforms that may, as witnessed in Wisconsin, invigorate their states’ citizens to support or oppose the proposed reforms. Some of these states seek the following pension reforms:
- Arizona is offering competing Senate and House bills (House Bill 2726 and Senate Bill 1609) relating to elected officials, police, firefighters and corrections officers.
- California Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget deadline is Thursday, March 10th, and he will likely include some of the pension reforms mentioned in his 2010 campaign for governor, such as stopping pension spiking and abuse, creating a two-tiered system of retirement benefits for older and newer employees, stopping retroactive application of benefit enhancements, and increasing employee contributions for all employees.
- Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada is still working on a reform measure to be introduced that may take on the look of a private sector 401(k)-type plan which will maintain the current defined benefit plan for new state workers but at a lower amount, with contribution rates required by the state and new state employees also lowered to reflect the reduced benefit. This reform is intended to help the state by not creating any long-term unfunded liability that taxpayers might have to pay.
- In House Bill 69 of 2011, Ohio’s legislature would make extensive changes to the contribution and benefit provisions of the five following major state retirement plans: the Public Employees Retirement System, the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund, the State Teachers Retirement System, the School Employees Retirement System, and the State Highway Patrol Retirement System.
- Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s Budget Repair Bills are intended to adjust the current biennium’s budget and require state employees to contribute 5.8% of salary to pension plans and another 12% of salary for health care, to save $30 million in the last 3 months of the current fiscal year.