October 15, 2021
The Pension Benefits, Design, and Funding Task Force released its interim report today to lawmakers. It summarizes the task force’s progress to date and outlines the next steps in advance of December when lawmakers have requested a final report in advance of the 2022 legislative session.
Here are some takeaways from the interim report:
- Lists several principles to guide the Task Force’s work, including: honoring State commitments to employees; ensuring pension system sustainability and affordability to taxpayers; minimizing impacts of any changes to employees near retirement; making no changes to already retired employees, and ensuring that employees don’t have to work longer to qualify for a benefit, among others;
- Discusses the factors that led to pension systems’ unfunded liabilities;
- Acknowledges that pre-funding health benefits for public employees would save the State money in the long run;
- Cites agreement to have the State’s actuaries analyze several hypothetical scenarios; and
- Identifies the Task Force’s focus in the weeks to come.
A summary of the October 6 Pension Task Force meeting was emailed to members and retirees this week, and it was also posted to the pension page on VSEA’s website. There was another meeting this week, and it was an important one because it was the final meeting before the Task Force issues its interim report to lawmakers.
Mark The Date! The Task Force has set Monday, November 1, 2021, as the date for a required public hearing on the interim report. It will be from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and each participant will have two minutes to offer testimony.
Questions About This Page?
Please email vsea@vsea.org.