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Alaska House Debates Retirement Legislation
Momentum appears to be gathering in Alaska to consider new pension programs for state employees as House-passed legislation to create a pension for police and firefighters moves to the Senate.
Alaska House Debates Retirement Legislation
Momentum appears to be gathering in Alaska to consider new pension programs for state employees as House-passed legislation to create a pension for police and firefighters moves to the Senate.
The state legislature abolished pensions for new workers in 2006. Proposals to reverse that decision have been introduced regularly, but have not become law. This year, unprecedented hiring problems and a shrinking pension liability are changing the equation, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
“The single biggest change is the desperate situation we have in recruiting and keeping everyone from troopers to teachers to firefighters to wastewater plant operators,” said Sen. Jesse Kiehl, a Democrat.
Enactment of the legislation, House Bill 55, would create a new pension fund for police and firefighters, who would be required to contribute at least 8% of their pay and could retire at age 55 if they work for 20 years. The Anchorage Daily News noted that the projected cost of $4 million and $7 million per year is less than the cost of hiring and training replacements for public safety workers who leave the state because there's no pension.
On April 4, Sen. Mia Costello, a Republican who chairs the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee, held hearings to review the legislation. Witnesses included David Kerschner, a principal at Buck, who provided a fiscal analysis, and William B. Fornia, president of Pension Trustee Advisors Inc., who outlined how a shared-risk hybrid retirement program would work.
A few days earlier, dozens of firefighters rallied on the steps of the Capitol in support of HB 55.
“I think a lot of legislators are starting to realize that when they hear from these chiefs and heads of these departments that this is a real problem,” said Paul Miranda, president of the Alaska Professional Fire Fighters Association, the newspaper reported.
Unless House Bill 55 advances in the Senate, it will die with the end of the legislative session and have to start over from scratch at the start of 2023.
You might also be interested in: Public Pensions On The Agenda In Kentucky; Pensions Deliver Benefits More Efficiently Than 401(k)s, NIRS Study Finds.
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