Thanks,
Representative Richardson
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Me
- Dennis Richardson
- Dennis has served as Oregon State Representative since 2003 as a “citizen legislator”. Dennis currently serves on the following Boards: ACCESS Food Share, Oregon-Fujian Sister State Assn., Crater Lake Council Boy Scouts of America, and Asian Education Foundation. A detailed biographical sketch is available in Dennis’ profile in Who’s Who In America. In Vietnam, Dennis served as an Army helicopter pilot. More recently, Dennis helped develop the Oregon Fallen War Heroes Memorial located in Central Point. Dennis’ decision to enter politics came after he and Cathy decided to pattern their lives after Benjamin Franklin, who believed a person’s first 50 years of life should be spent learning, earning and raising a family, and their last 50 years should be dedicated to giving back to society in the form of public service. In the Legislature Dennis has gained broad-based experience in such areas as budgeting, land-use and health care. In past Legislative sessions, Dennis Chaired Oregon’s Joint House/Senate Ways & Means Subcommittee on Human Services and was elected Speaker Pro Tempore by unanimous vote of his peers in the Oregon House.
This is an outstanding summary, and it is high time it is getting the attention it deserves. I sat on the Michigan Public School Retirement Board (MPSERS) from 1997-2000 as an appointee of Republican Gov. Engler, the only board member out of 13 that represented all 885 school districts, all 20 some odd community colleges, and all the universies except U of Michigan, Michigan St, and Wayne State, which had their own retirement plans. There were 3 public members, one of whom was statutorally required to be an actuary. The rest were split between active and retired members who were either current or future retirees. During the gogo years of the stock market while I sat on the board, the unions were after us to do as was done in OR and put the surplus (above 8%) earnings immediately into pensions. The actuary and myself were able to point out to the public members and the members currently working the dangers of such an action and how a fall in the stock market could easily result in cut backs in employees and lower if any pay increases by school districts that were allocated only a set amount of $/pupil. I rounded up the votes to put the excess above 8% into an escrow account that came in handy when the tech crash came. I will also add that state law in MI required the retiree to forfeit $1 of pension for every $1 earned in a MPSERS unit after retiring. This pretty much prevented double dipping in the school districts.
ReplyDeleteFor starters, we need that law in OR and there needs to be specific rules that prevent retirees from subcontracting out as "independent contractors" while drawing pensions.
I think we need to bring back Measure 8 as a constitutional amendment to get past the Supreme Court. I don't think there will be much sympathy for Tier 1 retirees among the general public, and I'd think that a strong case could be made to current state workers that such reform is needed if they are to keep their own jobs in the near future.
Ideally, we should go to defined contribution, but that will never happen unless we have GOP control in both chambers and a GOP governor. Not a likely prospect anytime soon.
The legislature needs to at least show some backbone and require the 6% employee contribution come out of the employee's pocket. And new hirees should be required to put in at least 10%.
Unfortunately, I don't see us ever getting this monster under control unless Measure 8 is brought back and passed as a constitutional amendment.
Finally, whoever carries our banner against Kitzhaber has to hammer him mercilessly at every occasion and every debate on this issue. He either acquiesced or was asleep at the switch while the board he appointed squandered away the excess earnings in the years leading up to the tech crash. Gov. Engler had a staffer monitoring all 4 public employee retirement boards in MI and he was keeping tabs on whether we were making the right fiscal decisions. When I had trouble with a board member, he was willing to personally call them to stress the need to do what needed to be done. If they wanted to be reappointed, they listened up and acted accordingly.
Rudy Stefancik, M.D.
Umatilla County GOP Treasurer