Amending the Montana Constitution to allow the Montana State Legislature to modify public retirement plans and/or impair related contracts may potentially harm public agencies' ability to attract and retain qualified and competent employees. Long-term employees with many years of dedicated public service public should be able to count on the stability, consistency and reliability of their public returement system. In many cases these employees have engaged in careful and considerate retirement planning. It would simply not be fair for the Montana Legislature to pull the rug out from under these employees by changing the rules every two years, based on short-term economic trends. The funding of public retirement systems is immensely complicated, and requires careful long-term financial planning carried out by professionals with expertise in this specialty.
A recent press release by the Montana Public Employees Retirement Administration (MPERA) provides a good overview of the prudent steps recommended by MPERA to deal with current shortfalls: http://mpera.mt.gov/docs/FundingShortfalls.pdf
Amending the Montana Constitution to allow the Montana State Legislature to modify public retirement plans and/or impair related contracts may potentially harm public agencies' ability to attract and retain qualified and competent employees. Long-term employees with many years of dedicated public service public should be able to count on the stability, consistency and reliability of their public returement system. In many cases these employees have engaged in careful and considerate retirement planning. It would simply not be fair for the Montana Legislature to pull the rug out from under these employees by changing the rules every two years, based on short-term economic trends. The funding of public retirement systems is immensely complicated, and requires careful long-term financial planning carried out by professionals with expertise in this specialty.
ReplyDeleteA recent press release by the Montana Public Employees Retirement Administration (MPERA) provides a good overview of the prudent steps recommended by MPERA to deal with current shortfalls:
http://mpera.mt.gov/docs/FundingShortfalls.pdf