Our years of work in trying to reform Washington state’s pension system might finally be starting to pay dividends.

The breakthrough came when the Joint Committee on Pension Policy (JCPP) recommended our bills to the full legislature. The House version (HB 1204) was sponsored by Rep. Bill Fromhold (Dem., Vancouver) and the Senate version (SB 5099) by Sen. Shirley Winsley (Rep., Fircrest).

“This new board will provide a fair and effective format for improving our members’ pension benefits,” says Council 2’s Legislation/Political Action Director Pat Thompson. When the House Appropriations Committee heard the bill on February 11, Thompson led the coalition of labor unions supporting the bill and testified before the committee.

The Senate version of the bill was heard by the Senate Ways and Means Committee on February 26.

The bill repeals the existing JCPP and replaces it with the Select Committee on Pension Policy. This new committee will be composed of four members of the Senate, four members of the House of Representatives, four members representing active employees, two members representing retired employees, four employer representatives and the directors of the Department of Retirement Systems and the Office of Financial Management.

The eight members who will be chosen from the Legislature will be divided evenly between the majority and minority parties of each chamber. At least three of the four from each chamber must be members of the House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means Committees

The House members are appointed by the Speaker, and the Senate members are appointed by the President of the Senate.

The Select Committee members representing active members, retired members and employers are appointed by the Governor to staggered three-year terms. No more than two members representing actives and no more than one member representing retired members may be from the same retirement system.

The retiree appointments must be rotated among the retirement systems to ensure each system is periodically represented. As is the case with the JCPP, the Select Committee will make recommendations to the legislature on pension and pension funding policies, and it will have the power to appoint or remove the State Actuary by a two-thirds vote.

The measure amends the statute that provides funding for the Office of the State Actuary by reimbursement to reflect the current method of funding by appropriation from the Department of Retirement Systems expense fund.