Thursday, November 18, 2010

Hey, Bill, I have news for you....the overnight dropping of the spousal subsidy didn't allow retirees to plan either......

.....you didn't seem to shed crocodile tears then! Of course, retirees don't pay OEA dues, do they?
From John Curry, November 18, 2010
"We thought that (old) cliff was rather severe," Leibensperger said. "It didn't allow anybody to plan."
Teachers pension system scales back belt-tightening
New plan reduces impact on the soon-to-retire
Columbus Dispatch, November 17, 2010
By James Nash
The Columbus Dispatch As lawmakers drag their feet on major reforms to shore up Ohio's five public pension systems, one of the retirement panels has tweaked its proposals to cushion the impact on retiring teachers.
More than a year after the State Teachers Retirement System board approved a tough belt-tightening plan for teacher pensions, the board last month loosened the belt a bit on retirement eligibility and cost-of-living raises.
The original plan was projected to save $8.99 billion from current pension liabilities. The revised plan is expected to save $8.4 billion.
The board voted 7-3 to ease the sting of the austerity measures after a group of unions and other advocates for retired teachers complained that the original plan would impose undue hardships on career teachers on the verge of retiring.
"With these changes, both the retirement board and the major constituency groups are now united in their support of the proposed package and can work collectively for its passage in the Ohio General Assembly," wrote Laura Ecklar, spokeswoman for the pension system.
Retired teacher Ralph Roshong of Sandusky said the revised plan is largely a giveaway to unions, rather than the kind of hard-nosed reform package needed to ensure the long-term viability of state pensions.
Like Ohio's four other public pension systems, the State Teachers Retirement System was required to outline a series of reforms last year to ensure the long-term solvency of pension funds battered by soaring health-care costs, the retirement of baby boomers and eroding investment returns.
The teachers system proposed scaling back cost-of-living raises, requiring teachers and school districts to contribute more toward retirements, increasing the eligibility requirements for retirement, and calculating the pension based on the average of five years' salary instead of three.
The revised plan doesn't change the increased contribution rates or "smoothing" of pension benefits. But it is slightly more generous on cost-of-living raises and retirement eligibility.
The teacher pension is the only system of the five to amend its reform package while lawmakers stall on adopting measures for all five pension funds. The General Assembly was scheduled to take up the reforms early this year, but they were delayed because of election politics. The issue is unlikely to resurface this year.
Last year, the State Teachers Retirement System board voted to reduce the cost-of-living adjustment from 3 percent to 2 percent for current retirees and to 1.5 percent for future retirees. Last month, however, the board said both current and future retirees should get annual 2 percent increases in their pension benefits.
Under the reforms adopted last year, new eligibility requirements for retiring teachers would kick in Aug. 1, 2015. Teachers would be able to retire at any age with 35 years of tenure compared with 30 years now, at age 60 with 30 years of tenure, and at age 65 with five years of tenure.
The revised plan, however, relaxes the 2015 date in favor of a phased-in plan that won't be fully implemented until 2023. For example, a teacher could retire with 31 years of tenure from 2015 to 2017 and 32 years from 2017 to 2019.
William Leibensperger, an Ohio Education Association vice president who worked on relaxing the old rules, said the cost of the revisions pales next to the financial markets' effect on the pension fund.
"We thought that (old) cliff was rather severe," Leibensperger said. "It didn't allow anybody to plan."
Larry KehresMount Union Collge
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