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News
Your source on political action, legislation & voter info
 Pension
reforms proposals go too far in Ohio General Assembly; Use OCSEA's new
E-Action Center to contact your legislators
Nov. 20, 2003
- Tell your legislators to stop “Full Employment Act for
Ohio’s Bankers and Brokers” and close door to politics on
pension boards.
The Ohio General Assembly is considering several “reforms”
to the public employee pension system, but now some legislators are going
too far. Some are advocating a “sweetheart” deal that will
force the PERS and the other systems to make investments through Ohio’s
fat cat banks and stockbrokers at an enormous cost – so costly,
at least for PERS, that paying for retirees’ health care may be
impossible.
Other legislators are using this opportunity to stack the Retirement Boards
with political appointees. Some are even going so far as to let one politician
– the State Treasurer – have the sole power to hire and fire
the funds’ directors.
These so-called reforms will hurt the public employee retirement funds,
not help them. You worked hard for your pension. Don’t let the legislature
mix bad reforms with good ones. Click below to take action or keep reading
for more information.
Take Action Now
Contact Legislators - Use OCSEA's
new E-Action
Center to compose and send an email or letter to your legislator.
Spread the Word - Download Pension
Reforms Flyer.pdf to share with your friends, family, and
co-workers.
Keep in mind, PERS hasn’t had the problems that
some of the other retirement systems have faced. Although some of the
reforms under consideration make sense, the ones described above don’t.
Government employees have played by the rules and worked hard for their
pensions – let’s not let the politicians give away the store
to their cronies.
We have a chance to get the Ohio House and Senate back on the right track.
We need as many people as possible to contact their state representatives
and senators and tell them these proposals go too far. Remember, we want
a pension reform bill that:
- does not put political appointments
on our pension boards and reduce active member and retiree involvement.
- does not limit the ability of the
pension systems to hire the best professional investors in the country
so we can maximize our investment returns.
- does not let the state treasurer
control our pension dollars.
The wealthy Ohio banking and brokerage lobby has succeeded
in inserting a mandate into HB 227that would force PERS and the other
four public pension plans to make 50-70% of their investments through
their companies. This proposal should be called “The Full Employment
Act for Ohio’s Bankers and Brokers” because that’s the
only group that will benefit.
PERS, alone, stands to lose $40 million to $100 million in its members’
funds – YOUR MONEY! - each year by being forced to take their investments
to these fat cats instead of using cheaper (and better) outside investment
companies. This comes at a time when PERS is struggling to preserve health
insurance benefits for retirees and their spouses.
The Columbus Dispatch also points out that requiring the use of Ohio brokers
and banks “would be the first step toward a ‘pay to play’
system in which pension investment business would be directed to those
brokers offering the biggest campaign contributions to lawmakers. The
big losers would be pensioners.” (editorial, Nov. 9, 2003).
The staff of the legislature’s own Ohio Retirement Study Council
also oppose these schemes.
Please take a minute now to send a message to your state senators and
representatives by visiting the OCSEA E-Action Center or read on.
Take Action Now
Contact Legislators - Use OCSEA's
new E-Action
Center to compose and send an email or letter to your legislator.
Spread the Word - Download Pension
Reforms Flyer.pdf to share with your friends, family, and
co-workers.
Learn More - Visit PERS’s
excellent web page
http://www.opers.org/aboutOPERS/legislation/index.shtml
In the News - Read what Ohio's major
newspapers are saying
Other legislators want to fiddle with the composition
of the Retirement Boards. These boards are the board of directors for
each pension fund. PERS, for example, has a nine-member Board that hires
the executive director, and sets the broad direction and policies for
the fund. A majority of the positions on the PERS board are currently
set aside for five elected representatives of active employees (state,
county, university, municipal and miscellaneous). But some misguided legislators
want to fix what isn’t broken and change the board makeup by, for
example, taking away one of the employee positions.
Another proposal is to make the State Treasurer part of the boards and
give him or her the sole power to hire and fire the executive director.
Putting so much power in one politician’s hands takes away the authority
of the employee representatives and the other board members. Worse, it
could lead to corruption, patronage and/or favoritism in the management
of the funds.
The staff of the Ohio Retirement Study Council also oppose giving this
power to the Treasurer.
These so-called reforms will hurt the public employee retirement funds,
not help them. You worked hard for your pension. Don’t let the legislature
mix bad reforms with good ones.
Take Action Now
Please take action and spread the word. There are
two ways to do this: After you take action, forward this story or part
of it to as many people as possible. Or, click on the Tell-A-Friend
link below and send a message to your friends, family members and co-workers.
Contact Legislators - Use OCSEA's
new E-Action
Center to compose and send an email or letter to your legislator.
http://capwiz.com/ocsea/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=4242501
Tell-A-Friend - Help spread the word.
Send others to the OCSEA E-Action Center's alert
page.
Note: Your MyOCSEA general "members"
email subscription now includes OCSEA's E-Action Alerts. You'll still
get your MyOCSEA UnionNews emails, plus you'll receive E-Action alerts—helping
you take e-action on legislative issues important to public employees
and working families.
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