THE GOVERNOR'S budget proposes to make a one-time gain-sharing payment to Plan I and Plan III members and then eliminate it forevermore. Gain-sharing, as you may remember, was created to entice people into Plan III with the promise that when the stock market performed well (over 10% average return for four years) the employees would “share” in the gain by splitting everything over 10% 50-50 with the employers.

Plan I would do the same thing, but the gain would be put into a permanent cost-of-living increase.

This concept wasn’t supposed to cost anything, so rates weren’t supposed to be affected. Four years ago we found that the no-cost gain-sharing was a sham and billions would need to be set aside to pay for it. Since then, we’ve worked with the Select Committee on Pension Policy to craft a solution that eliminated gain-sharing while making improvements, namely the Rule-of-90 that would allow anyone whose age plus years of service that equal 90 the ability to retire without penalty (that is, 60 years old with 30 years of service) to all plans and still save the state money.

The legislators ignored any solution offered and now face the legal obligation to pay out millions unless they take away gain-sharing.

Your union is promoting, opposing or following several other issues that will be highlighted in future reports. However, for the moment, please contact your legislators and deliver this simple message:

You can also download our letter to your legislators and mail or fax it to them. Click here to download a copy of the letter.

(If you aren’t sure what district you are in, go to: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx and enter your home address and zip code.)