Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Pension changes are coming for public-school teachers and state employees, including new judges.

A piece of the proposed fiscal 2010 budget, approved 15 to 1 by the House Finance Committee on Wednesday, attempts to cut $45 million from the soaring taxpayer cost of providing pensions to public school teachers and state employees, including judges. House Minority Leader Robert Watson, R-East Greenwich, abstained, saying he could not comfortably vote on a 38-page budget proposal that he had not seen until minutes before.

Rep. John Savage, R-East Providence, a retired school principal, voted for the package but said he hoped it would end the perennial debate about public employee pensions so the workers are "taken off the roller-coaster they have been on'' the last several years.

Rep. Nicholas Mattiello, D-Cranston, said "nobody likes changes'' in their benefit packages, but this proposal comes "as close to fairness as possible.''

The package does not go as far or save as much money as plans proposed by either Governor Carcieri or a House study-commission.

And none of the changes would apply to anyone already eligible to retire on Sept. 30, a move aimed at averting the kind of mass exodus the state saw in the weeks before the last major retiree benefit change.

But for others, the new rules governing the minimum age for retirement, the benefit accrual rates and annual cost-of-living increases would begin Oct. 1.

All but the newest state workers can now retire and start collecting a pension at any age after 28 years of work, or at age 60 after as little as 10 years of work, with guaranteed 3-percent compounded annual increases.

Under the new rules, the state would adopt age 62 as the new "target'' age for retirement. In actuality, however, the minimum age for retirement would vary widely, depending on how long an employee had worked and how close he or she was to qualifying for retirement. For example: a state employee who started work at age 25 who could retire today at age 53 and collect an immediate pension, would have to wait until age 53 and three months.

It is a complicated formula, but simply put: the further from retirement the employee is, the higher the age requirement.

The new plan would also key pension calculations -- now based on a three-year salary average -- to a worker's highest five-year salary average, and reduce the top benefit from 80 percent to 75 percent of this new salary average.

For new judges, hired after July 1, there would be a cutback in benefits from a maximum of 100 percent of pay for the longest serving judges to either 65 percent or 80 percent, depending on how old they are at retirement and how long they served on the bench.

No documents detailing the changes were immediately available, but it appeared from briefing papers made available to the media that the House budget-writers went along with Carcieri's plan to reduce the disability benefits paid workers who are not "permanently and totaled disabled'' from the current two-thirds of pay to 50 percent, on the assumption they can line up "other jobs.''

Comments

Harry said:

I'm glad to see the pension reform. Hopefully they also closed the loopholes allowing judges to purchase years of service for next to nothing. And the loophole allowing judges & magistrates to claim years of service for alleged "door-opening" duties at the State House that are seldom officially documented. People need to stop looking the other way if they want to improve their standard of living, and not just judges' and magistrates' standards of living.

Link | June 17, 2009 11:31 PM
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Mike said:

So where the heck is the entire formula for calculating teacher retirement age???

Link | June 18, 2009 8:58 AM
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Diane said:

Did the legislatures vote to pay a portion of their health benefits? Of course not!!

Link | June 18, 2009 11:24 AM
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gino said:

As usual, the powers that be hit the lower income workers the hardest. What really bothers me is that the legislature has never done their part in helping with the crisis. They continue to receive full health benefits for free and most of them already have serious incomes while poorer state employees shoulder 15 to 25% of their health costs.

Rogue's island is alive and well downtown thanks to the governor and the legislature. They are the only ones getting rich along with their political cronies.

Link | June 18, 2009 12:48 PM
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