Newspaper coverage on state pensions badly off mark; OCSEA retiree sets record straight

Jan. 13, 2010 -A spate of recent news articles criticizing Ohio’s five public employee pension systems have left many OCSEA members wondering how the state’s newspapers could have gotten it so wrong.

Not only were the stories severely distorted with respect to what most retiree benefits entail, the stories also generalized pension participants as if they are all somehow scamming taxpayers and the retirement system.

Horror stories about government workers double dipping by drawing a pension and going back to work in their current job were made to look like the norm. According to stories that appeared in the Columbus Dispatch, Dayton Daily News, Youngstown Vindicator and other dailies, public employees are all getting rich off their retirement and costing taxpayers an arm and leg.

But OCSEA leaders know the truth and the truth is, the average pension benefit for a member of the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System is a meager $21,000 per year.

OCSEA State Board of Director’s Lonnie Blackwell and a retiree with the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Columbus Dispatch with her story:

“When I retired I received a whopping $14,500 a year from my public employee pension fund. Certainly my pension has increased some since then, thanks to cost of living increases in the years since I’ve retired, but I’m certainly not living high off the hog, that’s for sure.

I’m managing on my pension benefits by living within my means and staying frugal. I stay out of debt, clip coupons, use the COTA bus as my major means of transportation and rent because the cost of maintaining a home has become too expensive.”

The fact of the matter is many OCSEA members who came to work for the state in the 70s and 80s did so not because of the salaries, which were well below their counterparts in the private sector, but because of the stability of the retirement benefit. Many state employees have sacrificed much higher wages for the safety and security of a retirement income in their later years.

Besides, many government jobs can be quite physically and emotionally taxing. Correction Officers and institutional employees often suffer injuries and even assaults on the job, making those positions not always appropriate for employees in advancing years. Firefighters and Highway Workers have some of the most dangerous jobs in the country.

OCSEA and OPERS have both submitted letters to the editors of newspapers around the state disputing their conclusions that the public employee retirement systems aren’t sustainable.

In fact, OPERS is one of just two public pension systems in Ohio that have remained within their 30-year limit for being solvent. OPERS Executive Director Chris DeRose had a letter to the editor published in the Columbus Dispatch on Jan. 12 where he indicated as much:

“OPERS' long-standing commitment to being accountable to our members, retirees, employers and taxpayers is reflected in the fact that OPERS continues to operate within the statutorily required 30-year time frame for meeting our future financial obligations.”

Because they are committed to making incremental changes that keep the fund sustainable, the OPERS Board of Trustees has recently recommended some reform measures that will keep OPERS sustainable and the retiree health care fund in place. Those changes will increase by two years the minimum number of years required to retire for many retirees among other changes. Check out the OPERS website for a full list of the proposed changes. Any changes to the pension must be passed into law before taking affect.

See Related

OPERS Website

Proposed Pension Changes by OPERS Board