Ohio PERS healthy despite downturn

Oct. 28, 2008 - As credit gets squeezed tighter and tighter and the cost of energy and goods creeps up and up, the financial market and other stocks continue their downward trend.

With these daily losses in the stock market, workers around the country are naturally anxious about the security of their retirement funds.

How are these losses affecting employee pensions and retirement? For workers and others who have been using the stock market to invest for their retirement, there is no doubt: times could continue to be rocky.

Imagine, for instance, if Social Security had been in the stock market? Had that system been privatized under Bush, retirees would have lost money because of the Dow downturn – some say each retiree could lose as much as $26,000.

The same threats have been made to State of Ohio employees and for their retirement fund, the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System. What if state employees did not have a defined benefit program? What if they were forced into private accounts and were made to invest in the risky stock market like Bush, McCain and others are touting?

Thanks to the hard work of OCSEA, other labor unions and other stakeholders, OPERS is not at risk of privatization and is 100 percent solvent, in spite of current economic trends.

Because of OPERS’ diversity and long-term strategy, even when there are dips in the market (or calamities) the fund can weather the storm.

According to a recent statement released by OPERS CEO Christopher DeRose, “OPERS has a disciplined approach to investments...We have faced severe downturns in the market before and will survive this one.”

At a recent OCSEA Board of Director’s meeting, Pres. Eddie L. Parks, a member of the OPERS and Deferred Compensation boards, assured OCSEA’s Board that OPERS is 100 percent solid. “We lost twice as much after 9/11,” he said. “OPERS is sitting on $77 billion in investments.”

Despite these troubling times, an article by Stateline.org in October rated Ohio’s state pensions as “healthy.”

Additionally, according to an OPERS press release, “OPERS investments beat their benchmark during the calendar year ending Dec. 31, 2007.”

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