April 23rd 2024

LEOFF 1 Coalition News: January 23, 2009

The Governor said Dec 18th that, “she could also propose skipped payments to State employee pension accounts.”

The Governor did NOT say that would be about us. We should not assume so at this time. The State has skipped pension payments to public pensions in the past, including our own in the 1970’s, and Public Employees plan 1 and Teachers plan 1 . Those other plans are very far behind, “Billions” is what they believe. Here it comes again for them. Their lot in life gradually affects their ability to see fully funded plans as people living on retirement, but could cause insolvency in the years to come. We should support those retired workers when they might object to a pension problem. They earned their pensions as did we. They came to our aid and testified in opposition to the attempted termination of our pension law and a “RAID” of our pension money. LEOFF 1 may have reason for concern because of the economy train wreck. Granted is that the current Legislature has a huge appetite for appropriating money because the State budget is a mess. We will watch for a bad Legislative Bill if it pops up. None is known for this writing, but could change daily. Former Gov. Dan Evans did take teacher pension money to build the Hood Canal Bridge and was forced to pay the money back, but at 3 percent interest, so said some old timers. That was a poor public policy and should be strongly opposed if anyone tries it again.

Be weary of different news paper reports on the State budget proposals. Today’s news is cut, cut, and cut more spending. Both parties see the need to do so.

Our LEOFF 1 Pension Plan is “Pre-funded.” We paid our 6 percent monthly contributions as did employers up until year 2000 when the pension holiday came into law to relieve employers and give them some time away from the costs of their liabilities. Keep in mind this was a holiday, not a guaranteed endless situation. We are still under the threshold of the point that a pension fund can be tapped for money to pay medical care at the point it hits 120 percent of funding and appears to stay over that number. What we do not know is the true market value of our share of the Commingled pension Fund. We are said to be 114 percent. But, think of what You may have lost to the economic down turn. Was it 30 percent, or below 50 percent? If our individual losses were huge, then what should we believe of the pension funds. Our investment assets sure were affected by the market drop and may need a long time to recover to a good market value. The time needed may or may not include happy thoughts for years to come. Private Equities and Real Estate investments values are still a concern to pension fund watchers. Our friend Bill Kantor has noticed questionable lapse in State reporting and numbers not making clear sense.

Good news from Kantor is that we get a probable 4.483 percent COLA this April from the LEOFF 1 law. Social Security is going up to 5.8 percent for Jan. 09.

We are aware that DRS Director Sandy Matheson will step down and do something else after March. She was fair to us and open to talk to, approachable. This is a loss to us. She will announce another Medical Study meeting before long. Her replacement is not yet known.

Another issue worth discussing is State mention of wanting to cancel 470 Boards. Some people may assume that would mean also our statewide independent disability boards that are under the law and local control. A few legislators still want to control us with disability board consolidation but NO bad Bill has surfaced. This issue seems untrue at this time.

We have a good pension and want to keep it that way.

Watch for activity on any Legislative Bill on RCW 41.26 that is a threat to our pension law as well as House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means Committees all through the Legislative session especially late in their final day of session. Be prepared to call your legislator during the votes taken. Ask to talk to the legislator while they are on the floor, if and when anything bad for us is being voted upon.

This is for sure a good year to stick together.

Mark Curtis, Vice Pres for Pres. Bob Monize