Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Pensions! We have gathered the best stories about pensions and retirement security from the previous week. This is the news you need to know in the fight for a secure retirement.
Here are the top stories from this week:
Report: Retirement Security Critical for Hiring Quality Teachers by Public News Service. This story from the Public News Service highlighted a new report from the National Institute on Retirement Security about Kentucky’s defined benefit pensions which showed that “more than 96% of teachers say whittling away pensions would drastically affect the state’s ability to attract new teachers to the profession.” The study also evaluated how teachers viewed defined benefit pensions as opposed to 401(ks) and “found 74% of teachers in the Commonwealth would be better off in retirement with a defined benefit pension compared with a 401(K).”
Oregon Initiatives To Revamp PERS Withdrawn As Political Picture Changes by Jeff Mapes. In his story for Oregon Public Broadcasting, Mapes reports that supporters had withdrawn all five business-backed ballot measures to impact benefits from the Oregon Public Employees Retirees System. Shifting new public employees into a 401(k)-style system was one of the measures that would have appeared on the Oregon ballot next year. Patty Wentz, a spokeswoman for the PERS Coalition, said that “attempts to cut pensions only make it harder to attract and retain talented teachers, firefighters and other public employees.”
Retirees turn out to oppose pension changes by Dan McKay. At a meeting of the New Mexico Investment and Pensions Oversight Committee this past Wednesday, around 50 retirees voiced their concerns about Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s plan to overhaul the state’s Public Employees Retirement Association. The proposal would temporarily reduce cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) and would tie future COLAs to the pension fund’s investment returns, which would fluctuate depending on the market. Jonathan Thomas, a retired police captain, said, “People are counting on this [COLA] for their livelihood and quality of life going forward. We need to protect that – we need to protect the promise that was made to people.”
Be sure to check back next week for the latest news in the fight for a secure retirement!
