Oregon PERS Information

Money For Nothing

2012-02-17T13:22:00.001-08:00

The official Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation rate for 2011 was published yesterday. For the Portland-Salem area, the figures PERS uses for its COLA calculations, the 2011 rate of inflation was 2.86% This means that for everyone retired by July 1, 2012, the August 1st PERS payment will go up by the statutory maximum of 2%, with 0.86% added to each individual's "COLA Bank".For those members

When The Whip Comes Down

2012-02-02T13:29:00.001-08:00

Peter Courtney, President of the Oregon Senate, has decreed that HB 4033 will not get heard during this legislative session. HB 4033 is an OPRI-sponsored and supported bill that would stop PERS from releasing the names along with the information about retirement benefits in the future. The media (principally the Oregonian and the Statesman Journal) are exerting tremendous pressure on the

You Win Again

2012-01-27T12:29:00.001-08:00

After several email exchanges with the good people at PERS, I now have an answer to the question posed in my previous post "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye". Unfortunately for all the people retiring, the answer isn't the one they had hoped for, and I'm afraid that PERS is well-covered for what they do. I won't bother with the first of the messages since it is largely unnecessary relative to

Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye

2012-01-25T12:37:00.001-08:00

Some recent PERS retirees have discovered another potentially costly inconsistency with the way that PERS treats the IAP account. I have numerous reports of members taking a December 1, 2011 retirement and wanting to roll their IAP into other tax-advantaged vehicles. The problem they are encountering is that PERS has 120 days to effect the rollover, and when PERS does the rollover has a

We Take Care of our Own

2012-01-19T16:11:00.001-08:00

That used to be the motto of the group known as OPRI - the only group in Oregon dedicated exclusively to the welfare of PERS retirees. I and many others are lifetime members of this organization. Now about 28,000 retirees are confronting the issue of repaying benefits once thought to have been legally received, but now apparently are subject to the aggressive collection actions of PERS. Where

Things I Don't Need

2012-01-17T11:03:00.001-08:00

This should be treated as an open letter to PERS and to OPRI:Dear All:I've been spending a lot of time these past few weeks thinking deeply about the upcoming attempt by PERS to collect overpayments from PERS retirees from the period between April 1, 2000 and April 1, 2004. Since I retired during that window of time, I am one of the people who will be tagged during the collections for about

Money Changes Everything

2012-01-11T10:52:00.001-08:00

At the end of last year (2011), the Oregon Supreme Court ruled in its Robinson v PERS opinion that PERS could collect the overpayments that have been outstanding since as early as 2006 when the Strunk/City of Eugene remediation plan was implemented. To refresh memories, the overpayments were the result of PERS calculating benefits for people who retired between April 2000 and April 2004 on the

The Thrill Is Gone

2011-12-31T15:58:00.001-08:00

Yesterday marked the final business day of 2011. Ever since 2000, PERS retirees and future retirees have been watching and waiting for the courts to unravel, untangle, and to clarify a variety of situations that threatened the hard-earned pensions of public employees in Oregon. Starting with the City of Eugene case, filed in early April of 2000 up until December 30, 2011 - nearly 11 full years

Fruitcakes

2011-12-28T15:52:00.001-08:00

OK. A bit of an inside joke for those who know Jimmy Buffett music. Mea culpa, mea culpa mea maxima culpa. In my last blog post, "Dark Side of the Moon", I made an error that Ted Sickinger of the Oregonian took the time to point out. In the case of the "true up" of Mike Bellotti's final PERS benefit, the mismatch between his account balance plus the employer match is made up by the Employers'

Dark Side of the Moon

2011-12-11T12:52:00.001-08:00

Apologies to Floyd. As we predicted, the folks at the Whoregonian could not wait to start their muckraking about individual PERS recipients within weeks of the first data release. While the object of their rectal examination is former University of Oregon coach and Athletic Director Mike Bellotti, the reporters have not been satisfied to wait until the second data release (March 9, 2012) to

One of Us Cannot Be Wrong

2011-12-09T15:55:00.001-08:00

OPB is going for a second helping from the PERS trough on Tuesday December 13, 2011. It is a follow on show to the December 5 episode featuring Dennis Thompson of the Salem-Statesman Journal. Paul Cleary, Executive Director of PERS, yours truly, and one other former PERS member will be "guests". Cleary will be in the studio, while the two of us commentors will be in the peanut gallery from the

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

2011-12-04T13:32:00.001-08:00

The usually reliable radio show, "Think Out Loud" carried on Oregon Public Broadcasting will air a show tomorrow (December 5) to discuss the outing of PERS retirees and their benefits. The ONLY guest on the show to the best of my knowledge will be Dennis Thompson, the flack for the Salem Statesman-Journal, who has written about PERS issues for the paper for the past several years. Thompson is a

When The Whip Comes Down

2011-11-21T16:44:00.001-08:00

When will they ever learn? The PERS Coalition has had a dreadful record of inserting themselves in legal proceedings at exactly the wrong time. I have no idea which genius decided to *not* intervene in the original legal proceedings between PERS and the Oregonian and the Statesman-Journal. By taking the "high road" in that case, the parties reached a settlement (does that sound achingly

God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise

2011-11-08T09:15:00.001-08:00

Nothing like taking things down to the wire. The PERS Coalition's lawsuit against PERS to prevent the release of retiree names with the data dump on November 21, has been scheduled for a hearing at 1:30 on - you guessed it - November 21. Judge Vaughn Day of the Marion County Circuit Court has been assigned the case. Day, a recent Kitzhaber appointee, was previously a plaintiff's attorney and

Somewhere There Is A Someone

2011-10-27T17:04:00.001-07:00

Who waits eagerly to get his/her hands on the names and benefit amounts of PERS retirees. It may be an identity thief who, with a few keystrokes, could easily access the rest of the information needed to pull off a rather simple theft of identity. It may be someone who hates PERS retirees and their benefits who simply wants to do harm to someone doing better than he/she. Same ease of gathering

No Banker Left Behind

2011-10-06T09:52:00.001-07:00

The Oregon Supreme Court delivered its final body blow to any semblance of contract law in Oregon today. It ruled in favor of PERS and the employers in the Arken case, and it ruled in favor of PERS in the Robinson case, overturning the lower court's ruling in the latter. Basically the court gave window retirees the middle finger when it wrote that, in effect, we were stupid if we believed our

We Get To Feel It All

2011-10-05T12:44:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow morning (October 6), the Oregon Supreme Court will release its written opinion in the Arken case (and perhaps the Robinson case as well). I have no further information (such as the decision). The decision will be posted on the OSC's web site at around 8 a.m. or close thereto. Perhaps some of the agony of waiting will finally be over. At this point, any opinion is likely to be

Midnight in the City of Destruction

2011-09-25T16:38:00.001-07:00

Just sitting around contemplating the potential end of summer. I've received a number of thoughtful emails about the impending release of retirees' names and monthly benefit amounts. These emails provoke some interesting notions. I thought I'd run a few up the flagpole and see what holds. Bear in mind that these aren't all my thoughts, but are the thoughts of some others that I've shamelessly

I Can't Take It No More

2011-09-23T07:20:00.001-07:00

I've put together a brief survey to give OUR organization some idea about what we think of the new release of data. Please take a few minutes to read and take the survey located at:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P9WMVN5 . It will be your chance to provide valuable information.Thanks.

The Garden of Gethsemane

2011-09-19T10:52:00.001-07:00

Both the Oregonian and the Register-Guard are whooping it up that they finally "won" a victory over PERS. Their victory includes the release of names and amounts of PERS pensions paid out by November 2011. Later in March 2012, the same newspapers will receive additional information on those same retirees (ALL OF THEM) including employer, final salary before retirement, method of retirement

Scream, Aim, Fire

2011-09-10T14:39:00.001-07:00

This probably describes the way many PERS retirees feel today after learning that PERS caved in on the various public record requests to release a fair amount of information to the media about current retirees. While PERS got some concessions of what would be released and won a reprieve to allow notification of retirees about what information will be released, we basically got sold down the

Northern Exit

2011-08-16T14:49:00.001-07:00

Considerable confusion still exists about the newly enacted HB 2456. This bill, just recently signed by Governor Kitzhaber, removes the state income tax subsidy to PERS members who (a) retire on or after 1/1/2012 *and* (b) who had creditable service prior to October 29, 1991. The confusion stems from a rumor -- absolutely untrue -- that anyone who moves out of state after 1/1/2012 will lose the

Hard Bargain

2011-07-30T13:09:00.001-07:00

As most people know, the PERS Board voted yesterday (July 29) to keep the assumed rate at 8%. The local media seemed surprised by this decision and focused on a random comment made by one of the Board members that he didn't think the 8% was sustainable, but that he respected the wisdom and judgement of the Mercer actuaries.Most reports didn't discuss some of the issues raised in the actuary

Back To Black

2011-07-25T10:55:00.001-07:00

While I was gone the Oregon Supreme Court issued an order joining the Arken and Robinson cases for the purposes of issuing a final opinion. While the cases are different, they cover enough similar ground that the Court apparently feels it can issue a "one size fits all" decision. Greg Hartman doesn't know whether this is good news or bad news, but he opines that it probably means that they are

Miles To Go

2011-07-02T12:10:00.001-07:00

On Thursday, the Oregon Legislature bid sine die and all went home for the remainder of the year. PERS members and retirees escaped from any significant harm, although HB 2546B did finally pass and so our fellow members who retire on or after January 1, 2012 and who live out of Oregon and who accumulated PERS credit for work performed before October 1, 1991 will see that the income tax subsidy

Dimming of the Day

2011-06-29T17:39:00.001-07:00

Sine die will probably be pronounced sometime tomorrow towards the end of the day. At this moment, only two PERS bills survived the grueling process that is the Legislature. HB 2113 was a PERS housekeeping measure that reconciled some inconsistencies in the language of the OPSRP and the rest of the Chapter 238a. The other bill to pass was HB 2456B. This was (and remains) a very controversial bill

Hold On, Hold On

2011-06-15T16:58:00.001-07:00

The Oregon Legislature is approaching sine die with considerable dispatch. For PERS members, this is good news so long as the Legislature doesn't make any wrong turns along the way. To date, not a single PERS bill has passed and has been sent on to the Governor. There are a number of bills that could take flight almost any day, but the majority of bills have already died a death by a thousand

Goodnight Old World

2011-05-26T10:13:00.001-07:00

If ever there has been a crazy week, this must be it. I won't bother with the screwy things going on in my life just before Memorial Day, but for people who follow PERS news, the week borders on bizarre. Of course, we have the news reported on Monday about the Ways and Means Committee possibly abandoning the revised HB 2456 and reverting consideration to the grossly illegal version original

Caught By The Light

2011-05-23T13:20:00.001-07:00

A firestorm is brewing in the Legislature and elsewhere over HB 2456. The story goes like this: the originally proposed bill would have removed the income tax subsidy from PERS current and future retirees who live in states other than Oregon and who pay no Oregon Income Tax. Before the bill came up for review in the House Business and Labor Committee, OPRI decided that the original bill was

Hard Times

2011-05-19T11:07:00.001-07:00

Google has been a bit problematic the past several weeks and so I've had to hold back some comments I had intended to post. Two posts went astray and I've yet to see them appear here. So, I'll try to reconstruct one of the two, and will have a new one tomorrow.It has been awhile since we chatted about HB 2456. As you recall, this bill was heavily amended to affect only members retiring after

This Sad Song

2011-04-29T18:11:00.001-07:00

Last week or so, the Oregon Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal from Kay Bell. Most of my readers are not familiar with Kay so let me tell (briefly) her story. In a nutshell, Kay sought retirement estimates from PERS repeatedly as she neared the end of her teaching career. As the estimates would come in, Kay noted that they contained a significant error. She regularly and repeatedly

Idle Minds

2011-04-20T10:09:00.001-07:00

The House Business and Labor Committee today suspended its rules and passed out HB 2456 unanimously and sent it on to the Ways and Means Committee with a "do pass" recommendation. The suspension of rules took place because the Legislative Fiscal Office still did not have the "fiscal impact statement" done for this bill. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why the LFO hasn't got the analysis.

Chump Change

2011-04-18T14:39:00.001-07:00

As things are going right now, the only negative PERS bill to gain any traction in this legislative session is the ill-advised HB 2456 (see below for several posts and a lot of comments about this bill). The bill is now up to a dash 7 revision. As modified, it will now affect any PERS member eligible for the income tax subsidy who retires after 12/31/2011. If you don't live outside Oregon

How To Become Clairvoyant

2011-04-11T17:22:00.001-07:00

What a strange trip this past week has been. I suppose I owe OPRI an apology for the drubbing I gave them on Friday following the hearings on the PERS bills in the House Business and Labor Committee - specifically, HB 2456. I fell into a semantic cesspool with Mike Schaufler's chief of staff over the fate of HB 2456. I had written to Representative Schaufler, as I had done with all of the members

Cup of Sorrow

2011-04-08T14:10:00.001-07:00

Today was "PERS Day" at the Oregon House. As expected, only five bills were considered. Two were disposed of quickly (HB 2113 and HB 2114) by referring them on to the House Ways and Means Committee without discussion. These two bills were "housekeeping" bills introduced by PERS and don't seem to make a lot of difference to most people. Mostly they were intended to keep PERS legal with changes

Take It Out On Me

2011-04-04T16:44:00.001-07:00

Finally, at last, "PERS Day" at the Oregon Legislature. After waiting until the last possible moment, the House Business and Labor Committee has revealed the PERS agenda for this year's legislature. On Friday, the Committee will hear the following bills - HB 2113, HB 2114, HB 2456, HB 3218, HB 2989, and HB 3116. Since Friday 4/8 is the last day to hear such bills, we can presume that no more

The Beat Goes On

2011-04-01T08:06:00.001-07:00

In a bizarre twist of fate, the rumors have started to fly out of PERS headquarters, that the PERB and Mercer have agreed that the assumed interest rate - the one that determines employer contributions, Tier 1 minimum guarantees, and the actuarial factors, should be increased to no less than 8.1%, which is in line with Mercer's estimates of the next 20 years' returns. This will improve the

Oh, Wow It's You Again

2011-03-28T18:09:00.001-07:00

The PERS Board held its March meeting today, both at an unusual time and definitely an unusual day of the week. Today's meeting was scheduled to finalize the 2010 earnings' crediting to all accounts. There were a number of other items of significance, which I will talk about below. There were no surprises in the earnings creditings. Tier 1 regular accounts earned the assumed rate of 8.00%, the

Roaring of the Lamb

2011-03-09T17:51:00.001-08:00

A bit of good news to report. PERS posted the COLA for 2010 today. The CPI for 2010 was 1.25%, which means that anyone who retired prior to 2008 will get a full 2% COLA this August 1. Members who retired after July 1, 2008 and before August 1, 2011 will get 1.25%. Bills to reduce, change, or eliminate elements of the COLA for retirees have made it nowhere so far in 6 weeks of the Legislature. It

Hit The Road Jack

2011-02-22T14:48:00.001-08:00

And don't you come back no more. Just got a note from a friend that ALL of PERS' fill-in-the-forms sessions for a March 1 retirement date and an April 1 retirement date are full. I don't know how common this is, but the Legislature's 23 bills no doubt has some of those 60,000+ members eligible for retirement planning to kiss their employers' goodbye. This isn't a surprise given what is going

Don't Think Twice

2011-02-17T10:49:00.001-08:00

The mailbag overflows with questions from worried PERS members wanting to know how to time their retirement to miss anything the legislature might do. There is no simple answer to this question. If you weren't planning to retire now, thinking about it as a way to avoid what the Legislature might do is just plain silly. If you aren't READY to retire, you shouldn't give up your job and retire

Strange Overtones

2011-02-11T17:52:00.001-08:00

The Oregon Legislature has been in session for two full weeks now. Not one of the 23 PERS-related bills have yet been scheduled for a hearing. Rules devised by the split leadership in the House may be contributing to the slow pace of these bills. For a bill to be heard, both co-chairs of the House Business and Labor Committee (Mike Schauffler and Bill Kennemer) have to agree. For a bill to

Street Fighting Men

2011-01-19T20:53:00.001-08:00

The OPRI Board met on Monday to plan strategy for the upcoming Legislative session. OPRI is the only organization that directly represents PERS retirees. They have read through the 23 bills currently proposed and have categorized them into one of three groups: group 1 is a "fight to the death" group - these are bills that directly affect retirees and will mean less money for them either

Details in the Fabric

2011-01-13T12:12:00.001-08:00

The 3-day feeding frenzy that is the opening organizing session of the Legislature has just ended. The boys and girls of Camp Silly will convene again on February 1 to begin the daunting task of winnowing through almost 1700 bills introduced this session. Some might call this the "full employment act for lawyers, lobbyists, and legislative counsels". Of the 1700 bills, twenty three (23) are

Saving Grace

2011-01-12T17:36:00.001-08:00

By the grace of counting posts, it dawned on me that I had hit my magic number of 1000 posts since 2003. I'm not precisely certain when I crossed that mark, but it has been sometime since the first of 2010. That is a lot of writing and a lot of people who have read my thoughts. I want to thank you for making this site the preeminent source of all things PERS. I don't know if I will make it to

Wrong Side of The Street

2011-01-12T08:30:00.001-08:00

The Oregon Legislature and our new Governor both showed up in Salem yesterday and work began today. The Legislature has until January 23rd to get the initial draft of legislative concepts worked into bill form. Some say no more legislation can be introduced after that date; others claim that bills can be brought anytime. With that in mind, the first wave of bills have already been introduced

Weaver of Lies

2011-01-06T17:53:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I attended the Supreme Court oral arguments in the Arken and Robinson cases. These two cases, along with the White case, which still remains docketed in the Oregon Court of Appeals, represent the last of the litigation over the 2003 Legislative reform, the City of Eugene case, and the subsequent settlement agreement.The Arken case hinges on the impact of the Strunk's decision to strike

No Expectations

2011-01-03T17:20:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year to All. The next year promises to test our mettle and our souls. Between the Legislature, the media, and the public, PERS members aren't expected to be treated with respect, kindness, or consideration. We need to get past this and not take is so personally. The Legislature is charged with the task of balancing Oregon's budget; they have limited ways to do this. Our objective

Happiness is a Warm Gun

2010-12-16T15:28:00.001-08:00

And a quick trigger finger. I'm getting dozens of emails per day asking for advice about when to retire during 2011. As we all know, the Legislature will convene on February 1, 2011. During the first month of any legislative session, except an emergency session, the bills are introduced and assigned to committees. During the second month, the bills start moving through the committees and

Deja Vu (all over again)

2010-11-20T09:27:00.001-08:00

I spent two hours yesterday sitting through a pretty content rich but sizzleless PERB meeting. I could report on the whole meeting, but much of the meeting was pretty tedious and there wasn't much to get into a fuss over. I'm going to focus on several things that members/retirees/future retirees should be concerned about.First, the system is in pretty good shape - indeed better than most of the

Tiny Apocalypse

2010-11-16T10:48:00.001-08:00

This coming Friday (November 19) PERS Board meeting contains some juicy tidbits about what ideas are floating around for reforming PERS. For those who want to see them in their raw form, check the PERS website and look for the information packet posted yesterday for Friday's meeting. The item of interest is labeled D.2.c under new business. For those who don't want to see this, I summarize

Cleanup Time

2010-10-20T10:46:00.001-07:00

An email appeared in my box yesterday containing a copy of an October 18, 2010 order from the Oregon Court of Appeals directing the Arken case (and, by implication, the Robinson Case) directly to the Oregon Supreme Court. The Arken/Robinson cases were argued before the Oregon Court of Appeals last month. Instead of ruling on those appeals, the Oregon Court of Appeals wisely decided to

Ventilator Blues

2010-10-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

(I've edited the date so this remains on top for awhile. It is vitally important that as many as possible read it and have an opportunity to take action preemptively.)The definition of insanity is trying to do something over and over and hoping for a different result. Our local whoremongers and fishmongers over at the Whoregonian are wheezing out their last breaths on their ventilator.

Heartache For Everyone

2010-09-29T12:31:00.001-07:00

Our favorite bird-cage liner, the Whoregonian is mining its readers for ideas on how to cut the budget for the 2011-13 biennium. They posted a half-assed poll yesterday asking readers to vote for their top five choices for cuts or budget enhancements for the next Legislative session. Among the choices were diverting some portion of the gas tax to support state police, a 5% sales tax, ending the

The Laws Have Changed

2010-09-04T12:19:00.001-07:00

I now have enough information from independent sources to reconstruct pretty much both hearings last Thursday on the Arken and Robinson cases. Because of the surprise change in length of the hearings, many were surprised and somewhat unprepared for the quadrupling of the hearing time for each case. That is why it has been somewhat difficult to cobble together accurate notes. I am collating the

I Should Have Known It

2010-09-03T07:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, the Oregon Court of Appeals took oral arguments in both the Arken and Robinson cases. As originally billed, the arguments were to be 15 minutes for each case, to be heard sequentlally. I decided that going down to Salem for a 15 minute oral in each case was hardly worth the gas and parking and so committed to other plans for yesterday, which left me carless for most of the morning.

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

2010-08-16T14:49:00.001-07:00

The usual bunch of the "sky is falling crowd" have awakened from its summer slumber to announce that PERS is in trouble. We have the Oregonian (yesterday) describing the different poisons the legislature and PERS might have to choose from to make the system less expensive, the Register-Guard whining over the conflict of interest that exists because the Legislators and the Judges are all PERS

Apologia

2010-08-08T20:34:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the rude invitation to engage with Yahoo. I'm not exactly certain how that post got there except to say that it was something I did in the fog of being jet-lagged from our trip to Europe (Netherlands, Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Turkey). In any case, I *think* I inadvertently accepted an invitation to link my PERS blog with another PERS blog. It turns out that I had linked to an

First Flash Of Freedom

2010-07-13T17:28:00.001-07:00

The family and I will be leaving for Italy at the end of the week. It has been a year since we were last in Europe, and the great exchange rate between the Euro and the Dollar inspired us to do a more protracted trip this year. We've got housesitters, dog sitters, mail sitters, and newspaper sitters all aligned like the stars in the out nebula. After a week or so in Northern Italy, we shall

Another Brick in the Wall

2010-07-02T12:09:00.001-07:00

At long last there is a schedule for the Oregon Court of Appeals hearing of the Arken and Robinson appeals. These two cases will be heard back to back on August 6, 2010 at 9:30 in the Supreme Court building in Salem. These two cases both harken back to the combination of the settlement agreement between the employers and PERS in the City of Eugene case (Arken), and to PERS' invoicing window

Watching and Waiting

2010-06-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

The old email bag is overflowing with questions from (mostly) Tier 1 members eligible for retirement. The theme of most of the questions is "should I retire before the Legislature convenes near the end of January 2011".This is not an uncommon question for me and so I've given this a lot of thought. I generally don't offer advice on when people should retire as there are so many individual

Standing Eight Count

2010-05-31T11:08:00.001-07:00

By this time in the game, I should understand that there are many, many, many ignorant people out there when it comes to PERS, Occasionally I run across something that makes ignorance look intelligent and I thought I would share my latest experience with monumental stupidity with a vengeance.The background story is irrelevant. How I came into possession of this speech doesn't matter. What does is

Shine A Light

2010-05-21T15:55:00.001-07:00

I feel a bit like the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" skit. I'm not dead; I'm resting. PERS news has been remarkably sparse these days. Good news occurred last week when the Oregon Court of Appeals held for the plaintiff in the case of Murray v PERB. This case has potential ramifications for PERS members who weren't retired between 2001 and 2002. The case involved apportioning administrative

With A Little Help From My Friends

2010-04-27T14:03:00.001-07:00

One of the more interesting political races this year pits Incumbent Dennis Richardson (R, 4th District) against retired Community College President Richard (Rick) Levine (D). This district encompasses a portion of Jackson County in Southern Oregon. Since both candidates are running unopposed in May 18th's primary, they will face each other in November's election.This race is important for

Are We There Yet?

2010-04-01T09:55:00.001-07:00

The Oregon Supreme Court announced this morning that the cases known as Arken and Robinson were so stupid that victory should be awarded to the plaintiffs in both cases. Speaking for the Court, Chief Justice Paul de Muniz remarked that he had never before seen such a gross miscarriage of justice and that unless he got everything coming to him in his retirement benefits, he would hold PERS and the

Sleight of Hand

2010-03-29T19:36:00.001-07:00

The PERS Board and PERS Staff continue to fall all over themselves trying to weasel their way out of implementing SB 897, which was enacted during last month's special legislative session. This bill requires PERS to verify all information within 2 years of retirement if a member requests it. A member would be absolutely foolish to NOT request this verification. At today's PERB meeting, my

Must Be The Ganja

2010-03-28T13:12:00.001-07:00

Today's Salem Statesman Journal has a full front page spread article on the sustainability of PERS. I have read every article in their series and I can tell you that there is not ONE SHRED of new information in this "tell all" story. It is just a bunch of rearranged paragraphs and rehashes of old articles appearing in the various news sources around the state since about mid-2009. It just goes to

Still Standing

2010-03-26T15:34:00.001-07:00

Sorry to have dropped off the radar for awhile. Things have been pretty quiet on the PERS front, and I'm certain that nothing will change for awhile. I'm still waiting to determine the revised hearing date for the combined Arken and Robinson cases before the Oregon Court of Appeals. When I find out, I will post a note here and on POD.On an unrelated note, I've received some emails from readers

Little Lion Man

2010-03-15T08:33:00.001-07:00

Phil Keisling will be giving a presentation at PSU today, entitled "The 'Other Two' Oregons: Dimnensions and Implications of our Growing Generational Divide". Of course, Phil manages to work PERS into the discussion as he argues that non-discretionary spending at the federal and state level consume more and more of tight budgets.Keisling isn't giving this presentation just to enhance his

Bye, Bye, Love

2010-03-08T14:25:00.001-08:00

One of PERS members least favorite Board members, Brenda Rocklin, seems to have been replaced by Laurie Warner. Laurie, if I recall correctly, was the acting director of PERS for a period of time after Jim Voytko resigned and before Paul Cleary became Executive Director. That position was also filled by Brenda Rocklin. It appears that our Governor has a revolving door of two people who serve

Holy Flames of the Firespitter

2010-02-26T08:08:00.001-08:00

Previously here, we've discussed Phil Keisling's self-appointed role as a spokesman for PERS reform. We've also discussed the flaws in Mr. Keisling's various proposals as they have sifted their way through the various levels of revision. Today, I want to direct your attention to Greg Hartman's analysis of Keisling's most recent proposal. Like my own analyses, Hartman's does not attempt to

Long Hard Road

2010-02-11T12:21:00.001-08:00

The Oregon Court of Appeals has decided to reschedule the Arken case hearings to an unknown date in the future. At the same time, the court wisely decided to include the Robinson case for hearing simultaneously. As we know, the legal system moves at the speed of a glacier and these two cases seem to be in an interstadial whereupon they aren't moving at all. Eventually, these cases will be

Stalemate

2010-02-08T14:42:00.001-08:00

The pissing match between feckless Governor Ted and the Legislature over SB 897 is finally OVER. Today, following Friday's unanimous vote to override Governor K's veto of SB 897 in the Senate, the Oregon House voted 44-15 to override. As of around noon today, SB 897 is now LAW - the Governor be damned.SB 897 forces PERS to establish mechanisms to ensure Quality Control on all retirement estimates

Ring Them Chimes

2010-02-04T16:20:00.001-08:00

Hallelujah! According to an email I received today from Senator Richard Devlin's office, both the House and the Senate voted unanimously to override the Governor's veto of SB 897, which passed unanimously in the 2009 legislative session. This is a major slap in Governor Kulongoski's face and an equally hard bolt upside the heads of the PERS, both of which actively opposed this measure. Now, PERS

The Chain

2010-01-31T12:27:00.001-08:00

It is that time of year again. PERS just sent out the 1099R forms for you to begin the task of preparing your State and Federal Income taxes. Just for you, I've gathered together a couple of good deals from Amazon. You can find them here. Personally, I use Turbo Tax, but I've used Tax Cut and a few of the others as well. I just find TurboTax to be easier to use than most, plus it imports

There'll Be Some Changes Made

2010-01-31T12:23:00.001-08:00

After receiving 58 yes votes and 0 no votes and then being vetoed by Oregon's pimp daddy, Ted Kulongoski, SB 897 is back for a veto override on February 1 in the Legislative Special Session. If you recall from my harangues last summer, SB 897 is a bill that would require PERS to clean up its estimates and take ownership of them. This would prevent the kinds of fiascoes that Kay Bell was subjected

Bullet With Butterfly Wings

2010-01-29T14:43:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday the Oregon PERS Board held a joint meeting with the Oregon Investment Council and interested stakeholders. I didn't attend, but a reliable scribe was in attendance. If I didn't know better, I would have thought that the PERS Board might as well have declared the following: "Dear Current PERS Retiree: Please drop dead as soon as possible." At issue were the growing employer

Need You Now

2010-01-28T15:25:00.001-08:00

The Oregon Legislature's special session convenes on February 1, 2010 and will run to February 26, 2010. One of the first agenda items will be to consider a motion to override Governor Kulongoski's ill-informed decision to veto SB 897, which passed in the House and Senate by a combined 58-0 vote. SB 897 is intended to require PERS to develop a mechanism that insures potential retirees of

Bad Romance

2010-01-25T17:01:00.001-08:00

I hope that OPRI officials get the message that its romance with lobbyist Mark Nelson is not popular with the rank and file. The poll below, at the time of this writing, shows that 156 people of 179 voting, think that OPRI should find a new lobbying firm. While OPRI seems to have taken no "official" stand on Measures 66 and 67, its affiliation with Nelson's group leaves it in the curious

Stay or Go?

2010-01-21T07:51:00.000-08:00

Should OPRI continue with Mark Nelson's group - Public Affairs Counsel, or should they part company like AOF and several other groups recently. Follow the link below for the poll.
Should OPRI retain a differently lobbying firm that Public Affairs Counsel (Mark Nelson)(