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Union: Pension proposal ‘slippery slope’

Governor suggests reducing employer contribution from 14% to 8%.

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By Laura A. Bischoff, Staff Writer Updated 10:09 AM Tuesday, June 23, 2009

COLUMBUS — Ohio wants to write an IOU to its 60,150 state workers for contributions to their pension accounts for the next two years by delaying more than $350 million in contributions to the Public Employee Retirement System.

Gov. Ted Strickland is proposing reducing the employer contribution to Ohio PERS from 14 percent of pay to 8 percent during the next two years, then paying back that money during 10 years, beginning in 2012.

“We are crunching the numbers. We’re trying to determine the impact of this,” said Ohio PERS spokeswoman Julie Graham Price.

No actuarial analysis has been done, so the impact on the pension fund is unknown.

Public pension contribution rates are set in state law, not through collective bargaining agreements in Ohio. Currently, the state puts in 14 cents for every $1 of pay. That rate would drop to 8 cents under Strickland’s proposal.

Sally Meckling, spokeswoman for the Ohio Civil Service Employees union which represents 35,000 state workers, said, “This is a dangerous road to start down. It’s a slippery slope to start down. Other states have started down this road and have been unable to return, to pay the money back.”

To help in the budget crisis, state workers have already agreed to wage freezes and 10 days off without pay in each of the next two years.

Ohio’s five public pension systems, including OPERS, have been methodically studying what changes they need to make to keep the retirement funds solvent. “This just kind of pulls the rug out from all those deliberations,” said Aristotle Hutras, director of the Ohio Retirement Study Council.

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TED,
The OHIO public employees are the ones who worked hard and got you elected. You may end up being a one term governor when you start trying to cut our retirement contributions.

DH
12:40 PM, 7/2/2009

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"It assumes that the State will be able to afford to return to the higher contribution in 2012 and add the additional repayment amount to the budget."

It also fails to take into account the employees who retire, or God forbid die between now and then...

Live within your means Ted, the rest of us have to!

ttt
9:37 PM, 6/29/2009

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"The state employes should hold there toung I have worked for 37 years with zero contribution from all employers. "

I that's true your employer was violating the law.

ttt
9:33 PM, 6/29/2009

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The disparity in compensation and perks (free college for kids of employees at universities) are well-documented and better overall than the private sector.

It's time citizens wake up to correct it as politicians won’t, they benefit from the same system. Here’s a little proof about how generous; Mike Fox walked away from his home because he couldn’t pay his mortgage yet somehow found the money to buy extra retirement years from the state.

Enough
12:10 PM, 6/24/2009

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Check this out..you called it :)

jason
8:02 PM, 6/23/2009

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