Debbie Roush to STRS re: $25 billion loss and STRS report to the membership

From Debbie Roush, October 19, 2008
Subject: A $25 billion dollar loss

Well, I just read the October "Board News". At one point in my life, I read this "News" every month thinking I could/should keep up with what is going on in my retirement system. I stopped reading the "News" because it usually didn't tell me anything...it was just a bunch of words racing around trying to disguise the truth.

Nowhere did I read about losing $25 billion dollars. What I did read was this: OK, let's confuse the retirees, "dance all around" what really is going on, and just convince the retirees that everything is great, etc, etc, etc.

Now we've lost a great sum, we've increased the funding from 26 years to 28 years, there was an actuarial loss, but the percentage was not given,so (do we still have to pay the bonuses) let's talk about the "approved accounting technique", smoothing.

Board, you're trying to convince us that it is OK to lose funds because you're going to smooth the loss over a four year period. WHY, it's still lost, gone, no retrieving those billions...and this is not the first time billions have been lost. Aren't we still smoothing from previous losses? As stated in the "News", "calculations for smoothing are done every year', let's just roll this LOSS forward for three more years.

Now, tell us why there could be additional losses... (I quote) "Possible changes in assumptions could include changing mortality tables to reflect the fact that members are living longer, and making adjustments to the payroll growth and salary increase assumptions". This statement, just another excuse, should have always been a consideration. I knew this decline was coming in 2001, and each year I told my family that "It's coming, adjust the spending". Now, it's here, and I didn't get any bonus for knowing what to do, you, the Board, and evidently the newly hired director want me to believe your lies and cover-ups. You have not adjusted the spending, you have decreased positions, then created more positions than the initial number, you sit in a building finer than any I ever taught in, built with our retirement funds, furnished with our money, and I remember those "entitlement " days. I know that it is difficult to correct such wanton wastefulness, lying, greed, and dishonesty; I thought new board members and director would fix the current problems, but I see no evidence that this is working.

I am just so tired of picking up the newspaper or listening to T.V.and reading/listening to LIES. This is what you, board, have done for me and many others....lies. I am so glad that I do not have to answer for your lies, greed, dishonesty, etc..... I wrote to Governor Strickland asking why STRS has been allowed to mismanage our funds, and create a health care system for me that I can't really depend on .

Living and teaching in southeastern, Meigs County, Appalachia, lowest paid district in the state (and by the way I am so proud to be an Appalachian) has not afforded me a large amount of retirement dollars to work with. So when I see, hear, read, and listen to the asinine things that you do for me, I know that YOU work for YOU. I don't know how Dennis works with such a group. It's not just the financial areas that are not carefully guarded, it's all the items that are proposed for the good of the few. Right now I am so angry about the mismanagement of our funds and the power that the board has to do this; I can only compare this to the Holocaust. STRS is leading us to our demise, and it seems we are powerless to stop it.

If I have judged this retirement system, the board, director, and the investment employees wrongly, please correct me, and I will retract my statements and apologize.
Debbie Roush