Read it yourself: "Public employee retirement plan"

In reference to my previous post about legislation changing the retirement plan for state employees....

I've posted below the summary of the bill. On its face, it's not so bad. And hey, why should I be so concerned about a bill that doesn't affect my retirement? The bill, if passed, changes retirement for those hired beginning in the next fiscal year. I started with the state many fiscal years ago and I'm closer to retirement than not.

But the state has a great plan already. It's reasonable. It's solvent. It's managed properly by the WRS board. Its assets were not invested foolishly in credit default swaps or some other Wall Street nonsense. In fact, the board issued a public statement in 2011 that supported the current retirement set-up.

Go read it for yourself. And then ask why a change is needed.

Here's the summary from Legisweb:

SF0097-12LSO-0109 Public employee retirement plan.

This bill would modify benefits and requirements for benefits for general members of the public employees retirement plan ("big plan") hired after September 1, 2012. The new benefits would be based on a multiplier of 2% for each year of service (rather than 2.175% for the first 15 years of service and 2.25% for each year thereafter under current law). The bill would also provide that benefits would be based upon the highest 5 years, rather than 3 years, of salary. Finally, the normal retirement age would be increased from 60 to 65 (the rule of 85 would remain the same).