Welfare, Medicaid and Social Services

Re: 2009 House Bill 4813 (Gibr state employee pension increase )

sarah g. — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:55:13 GMT

Maybe I'm completely wrong but this seems like another example of poor legislation -- the SUMMARY of this bill sounds great to me -- it says it will offer a retirement option for people whose age plus years of service equal at least 80, with an incentive for people who retire BEFORE the start of the next fiscal year. The TEXT of the bill seems to provide retirement for the usual 60 year old with 30 years service, OR for a 50 year old with 30 years service, BUT NOT for anyone in between (it looks like a 55 year old with 25 years service would not be covered). It also seems to say that the incentive is available for anyone who retires AFTER this fiscal year.

Why is this so hard, legislature? If you revise the retirement bill so that anyone with a combined age/service of 80 is eligible to retire, many people would take the opportunity without any incentive. If you offered a 'window' for the incentive -- for instance, for people who had 80 years combined age/service before October 1, 2009 -- you would get a manageable rush of retirees and open a lot of new jobs without overwhelming the retirement system. We really need some reform in the defined benefit retirement system. PLEASE get to it before all of our young people leave the state and the government sinks into further decay!

Re: 2009 House Bill 4813 (Gibr state employee pension increase )

Kay S — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:43:53 GMT

I vote YES!!! An incentive retirement makes sense. As tight as the job market is right now, opening entry level positions would not only save the state money in the long run by paying at entry level rather than at the top of the payscale for current employees. It would also open positions for the growing number of unemployed. Jennifers bigest argument is that would lose so much knowledge and experience. Give the new blood a chance. It has been what, 8 years? 9 years? since the last early out, the people who were hired as replacements have to know their jobs now.

Re: 2009 House Bill 4813 (Gibr state employee pension increase )

brumane — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:48:51 GMT

I support this bill, I am a state employee with 33 years seniority who doesn't meet the age requirement for the present retirement plan

Re: 2009 House Bill 4813 (Gibr state employee pension increase )

SherriKing — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:34:56 GMT

Absolutely a must!! there are so many very high paid people actively engaged in "present-tee-ism" (sitting at their desks staring out the window) that to truly reorganize state government to be as effective and efficient as a huge organization can be, the state needs to give them an incentive to find other places to get their creativity going again.

Re: 2009 House Bill 4813 (Gibr state employee pension increase )

sarahp — Sun, 10 May 2009 14:12:46 GMT

The state is so overdue for this step, which will save money in the long run and open new jobs to help stem the tide of young people who are leaving the state. Please get this done!

2009 House Bill 4813 (Gibr state employee pension increase )

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2001 05:00:00 GMT

Introduced in the House on April 21, 2009

Click here to view bill details.