We're working to improve your pension

By CHRIS DUGOVICH

The Washington State Council of County and City Employees, AFSCME, AFL-CIO has always worked hard in the state legislature to better the PERS I and PERS II retirement plans.

However, as pointed out in various articles on this site, the road has been tough and hard and many times stacked against us.

Chris Dugovich
President/Executive Director of Council 2

Unlike our membership who work and participate in the City plans in Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane, our membership who are part of PERS have no real say on how their plan is designed. For many, many years, our benefits and our money have been controlled by a group of elected legislators who have no stake in the outcome.

Not only is this in itself wrong, it is also our opinion that they have manipulated the reporting of the returns to aid their case of never considering any reasonable effort to enhance benefits.

Due to these continued frustrations, the Union, along with our friends from Council 28 and the AFSCME Retiree Council, have filed three suits in Thurston County Superior Court. While this action will certainly take time, we are hopeful that these legal actions, along with our continued lobbying effort, finally will gain some results.

The real result will be that our membership and all the participants of the PERS retirement system will gain the right to real pension governance. Washington is only one of three states that does not allow its participants to make pension policy.

If we can achieve this goal then that certainly will be the first step in bettering public employee pension benefits. Stay tuned!

PERS II contributions to be lowered!

Unless the state legislature does a surprise move in the waning moments of the legislative session, your contributions as a participant of PERS II will drop on the employee side from 4.65 percent to 1.85 percent. This means that effective Sept. 1 you will see an additional 2.85 percent in your paycheck. A wise move would be take advantage of your employer’s existing deferred compensation program and contribute these new dollars.

If your employer does not have a program in place contact your Staff Representative and we can start the ball rolling in your jurisdiction.

The key to remember is that the IRS allows you to defer up to 20 percent of your income, which includes PERS retirement contributions and IRS 125 contributions tax-free. If, for example, you make $2,000 a month and defer 2.85 percent, receive a yearly 3 percent increase and an 8 percent investment return after 20 years, you would have $48,812.15. After 30 years it jumps to $128,681.12.

You can start it off with the savings from the PERS II contributions this fall!