Report #1 1/20/98
| 60 Day Session Begins |
The 1998 Legislative Session began on Monday, January 12th. This is known as the "short session" as it is scheduled to last only 2 months. Typically, short sessions during an election year don’t produce much by the way of major legislation. Add this to a Republican controlled House (56 to 42) and Senate (26 to 23) with a Democratic Governor and some people might say they’re better off staying home. Even Mother Nature sent a snow storm for opening day to discourage them from convening!
Defense has been the name of the game for Labor unions in Olympia and this session looks to be no different.
| Retirement Issues - Main Focus |
Over objections from our union as well as the Public Employee Pension Coalition (P.E.P.C.) the Joint Committee on Pension Policy has recommended a P.E.R.S. III retirement plan to the legislature. The first committee to hear the bill is Appropriations. At this time no hearing date has been set. They also introduced another Plan III type system for classified school employees. This year it’s called Washington School Employees Retirement System.
Although the plans are somewhat better due to our lobbying throughout the summer, the main issue regarding an earlier retirement age is not adequately addressed. More details will be provided in our next report.
Whistle Blown on State Actuary
Our complaints about the Retirement system being a rigged game have been bolstered by a whistle blower complaint filed against the State Actuary by the former Deputy Actuary. Although the specific complaint is not public, the questions center around the Actuary "cooking the books" to help certain lawmakers pass or kill pension bills. This is no big surprise. The current structure invites it. Here’s how it works.
We come in with a bill that lowers the retirement age to say, 60 years old. The Actuary then tells us how much that’s going to cost the system, he’s the only one who can. But since he reports to the committee who doesn’t want the bill in the first place, The inflates the numbers and in effect, kills the bill.
The complaint was filed with the State Auditor, Brain Sonntag, and he has called for an outside independent Actuary to investigate the office. The initial report is scheduled to come out towards the end of the session.
What you can "must" do
Call your Representatives and Senators from the following list and tell them to stop the HB 2488 (P.E.R.S. III) and HB 2487 (W.S.E.R.S. III) bills. Tell them that among a lot of other things, the numbers used to create these plans are highly suspect and it would be foolish to move forward with the investigation incomplete.
| Legislator's Phone Numbers |
The prefix for your legislator’s phone number is (360) 786
Legislative Hotline 1-800-562-6000
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