(Seattle) Court: State can nix public pension increases

[unhappycamper]

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/08/14/3330502/court-state-can-nix-public-pension.html?sp=/99/261/

Court: State can nix public pension increases
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press
August 14, 2014 Updated 13 hours ago

SEATTLE — The Legislature had the right to eliminate state employee pension increases that were approved during the stock market boom of the 1990s, the Washington Supreme Court said unanimously Thursday in two decisions that save the state billions of dollars but leave many public employees feeling cheated.

In twin rulings, the court found lawmakers were within their rights in 2007 when they repealed a "gain-sharing" benefit that paid employees more when investment returns on pension trust funds exceeded expectations, and in 2011 when they repealed automatic cost-of-living adjustments for certain retirees.

~snip~

"I don't think having to take away these benefits was something anyone enjoyed," said Sen. Barbara Bailey, an Oak Harbor Republican who chairs the Legislature's Select Committee on Pension Policy. "But had we not done this, or had it not been upheld, the cost to the state would have been in the billions."

Public-sector unions and others who sought to maintain the benefits concede they are pricey. But, they argued, the state had dangled the promise of the pension enhancements in the late '90s when officials persuaded tens of thousands of workers to give up their defined-benefit retirement plans for cheaper plans.

[merrily]

1. They tie so much to how the stock market is doing, not how Main Street is doing.

Some public sector employers play the game that it doesn't matter what you promised employees or why. It's all up to the state legislature.

In this case, some people gave up other retirement plans for this promise. Other people thought going to work for the state, or staying employed by the state, was attractive enough to compete with the private sector because of this promise.

Twenty or thirty years in the promise can be repealed with no grandfathering. How is any of this contractually fair to those people? But, it doesn't matter because the stock market isn't doing as well? Were ups and downs of the stock market a surprise to state legislators?

This puts a huge "Buyer Beware" sign over public employment.