Nesbitt, who served as Governor Kulongoski's chief of staff, explains the recent political history of Oregon's pension system for public employees and the next governor's inevitable task to fix it
Legislators won't be happy until they scrap the whole system just like they did to the private pension system in this country. Unions won't be happy, but corporations will laugh all the way to their wholly-owned banks...
Not at all. Changes have been incremental, supported by more Ds than Rs over the last two decades. I don't think most of them are out to scrap the system.
Not all defined contribution plans are bad; that's what I had working for unions over three decades. Not all defined benefit plans are well managed and sustainable, as we learned when the PERS Money Match system got out of control and gave PERS -- and by extension, public sector pension plans -- a bad name. I still think that defined benefit plans are best for career public employees, as long as schemes like Money Match aren't part of them. PERS Tier 3 (OPSRP) is a good example of an affordable and sustainable plan. But I also think that for less-than-career employees who move between public and private sector jobs, defined contribution plans can be better. Giving employees a choice between the two may make sense as part of future reforms, but that doesn't mean scrapping the pension system.
Legislators won't be happy until they scrap the whole system just like they did to the private pension system in this country. Unions won't be happy, but corporations will laugh all the way to their wholly-owned banks...
Not at all. Changes have been incremental, supported by more Ds than Rs over the last two decades. I don't think most of them are out to scrap the system.
Not all defined contribution plans are bad; that's what I had working for unions over three decades. Not all defined benefit plans are well managed and sustainable, as we learned when the PERS Money Match system got out of control and gave PERS -- and by extension, public sector pension plans -- a bad name. I still think that defined benefit plans are best for career public employees, as long as schemes like Money Match aren't part of them. PERS Tier 3 (OPSRP) is a good example of an affordable and sustainable plan. But I also think that for less-than-career employees who move between public and private sector jobs, defined contribution plans can be better. Giving employees a choice between the two may make sense as part of future reforms, but that doesn't mean scrapping the pension system.