tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-119570942024-03-13T05:23:11.379-07:00 Oregon PERS InformationMusings from too close to the crypt. Random thoughts, valentines, and vitriol from an aging and increasingly cranky boomer who's tired of the public flogging he's taken as an Oregon Public Employee and now as a retired public employee drawing his PERS pension. To people who think I'm getting more than I deserve - bite me! I earned every penny. Please read the notes below before posting comments, or emailing me. They are important!!!
mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.comBlogger760125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-2341850284880462842021-12-23T15:58:00.001-08:002021-12-24T09:56:34.695-08:00It’s Goodbye and So Long To YouAs the winter holidays approach, my family and I wish you the best holiday season possible. May the lengthening light of day shine bright and warmly on you.In more practical terms, this post formally closes off any further posts to this blog, a variant of which has been online since 2001. It also marks the official transfer of ownership of the Google newsgroup known as PERS OREGON mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-39316101236226370152021-08-25T13:07:00.001-07:002021-08-25T13:16:15.842-07:00Take The Long Way HomeI wasn't expecting to post another entry to this blog, but I thought I'd reach out one different way to see what might happen. As most regular readers know, I am also the owner of the PERS Discussion Group (POD) on Google Groups. That group, through its various incarnations, has existed for 15 years providing more real time discussion of issues of interest to PERS members, PERS retirees, and mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-54348118037888018252021-07-24T12:32:00.001-07:002021-07-24T12:32:42.623-07:00House of PainOK. I lied. THIS is my last post. Yesterday the PERS Board voted to lower the assumed interest rate from 7.2% to 6.9%. This falls between the maximum recommended by Milliman (7.0%) and their lowest bound recommendation (6.8%). This means that anyone still in Tier 1 (active or inactive) who expects to retire under Money Match will see benefits lowered from retirements during 2021 versus mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-49429082645903341942021-05-30T13:57:00.001-07:002021-05-30T14:06:51.581-07:00Free BirdThis is my public announcement that I have posted by final content on this blog with the two entries below (Dancing in the Dark, and Another One Bites The Dust). I've been writing this blog about PERS in one form or another since 2000. It began as a short newsy email to some of my age and service peers at PSU in 2000. By 2002, it had grown larger than I had expected, had become a newsletter, mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-73135258824041353032021-05-30T13:39:00.001-07:002021-05-30T14:05:47.704-07:00Dancing In The DarkOn June 4, 2021, the PERS Board will receive Milliman (the actuary) recommendations about various economic assumptions for the 2022-2023 calendar years. Among the critical recommendations will be assumptions about salary growth, inflation, and the assumed interest rate. In reading the Milliman report (details of which are found in the PERS Board packet for the 6/4/2021 meeting), they are mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-33773606037904732672021-05-28T14:38:00.001-07:002021-06-06T12:11:10.452-07:00Another One Bites The DustIn my previous post "Wouldn't It Be Nice", I identified a bill introduced with bipartisan support (HB 2867), which would resolve the longstanding issue of residency mistakes introduced by the way PERS defaults to determining whether a retiree is eligible for the Income Tax Remedy. The bill had, as I noted, bipartisan support, would have no direct costs to PERS or to employers. For reasons only mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-66184512858362620422021-03-18T10:24:00.001-07:002021-03-18T10:25:46.010-07:00Wouldn't It Be NiceEvery once in awhile, a bill that actually cures a problem with PERS comes along where everyone is a winner (The bill currently in process through the Legislature is HB 2867, which I will discuss below after some history). Sometime back in 2017, I wrote a post entitled "Tinfoil Hat", where I ruminated on something that had happened to me (and others) that made no sense, but seemed to come out ofmrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-91035592924570330992021-01-26T14:14:00.001-08:002021-01-27T09:02:39.600-08:00Stay For FreeThere has been some discussion on the inter webs about the recently introduced SB 111 in the 2021 session of the Oregon Legislature. People have been misinterpreting this bill, who it applies to (and doesn't), and what its purpose is. I'm not going to even try to explain the bill because it doesn't need anyone's attention. The bill, introduced on behalf of PERS itself, is nothing more than a "mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-39715972811949231752020-10-05T13:34:00.001-07:002020-10-05T14:39:26.103-07:00Confusion WheelThere seems to be some confusion following the State Economist's report on September 23, 2020. The good news is that tax revenues for the 19-21 biennium are on target to hit needed revenue to finish out the current two year cycle. The bad news. This has led some of my correspondents to think that PERS won't be a target in the upcoming 2021 Legislative Session. While I'm not a seer, a mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-1282773978805650392020-08-06T15:11:00.001-07:002020-08-07T09:05:10.711-07:00Cold ShoulderToday, the Oregon Supreme Court issued its ruling in the James et al case, the PERS Coalition challenge to the 2019 Legislature's SB 1049 bill. This bill redirected some IAP monies into the Employee Pension Stability Account, and placed a salary cap for the purposes of FAS on post 2019 income to $195,000 per year. This ruling was one of the fastest rulings in my recall of the Oregon Supreme mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-2123957251448017812020-05-17T15:11:00.001-07:002020-05-17T15:13:22.779-07:00All Said and DoneThe chatterati have been babbling on about Mitch McConnell's remark last month concerning letting states declare bankruptcy. Let's put this horse down right now. Federal law does not permit states to declare bankruptcy, and it would involve an amendment to the Federal Bankruptcy Code to even permit this to happen. Researchers would be advised to look to the state of Arkansas from 1933 for an mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-1807632088445641462020-04-05T14:14:00.000-07:002020-04-06T12:22:23.000-07:00Shake, Rattle, and RollI've been meaning to write something for quite awhile now, but the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on all of us. I'm going to dispense with my usual blather about how badly the financial markets have done during this unbelievable moment in history. The bottom line is that the bottom just dropped out of the market and all of us who are invested directly, or indirectly have suffered losses (mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com46tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-81938258932851110232019-11-22T14:31:00.001-08:002019-11-22T19:55:07.332-08:00PAY ATTENTIONI am deviating from my normal pattern of using song titles as titles for my blog posts. There is an important item I want to bring people's attention to, especially if you are planning to retire after December 1, but could retire ON December 1..
The bottom line is this is that the Actuarial Equivalency Factors that PERS uses are adopted in the same year that PERS adopts the Assumed Interest mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-3162645092035076772019-11-12T12:12:00.001-08:002019-11-12T13:00:30.709-08:00Trampled UnderfootIt has been a long time between postings. Since the Legislature passed SB 1049 concerning diversion of part of the IAP contribution, salary cap, and a few other elements pertinent to the existing PERS members' accounts, things have been pretty quiet.
Predictably, the PERS Coalition filed suit within the 60-day window prescribed by the Legislature, contesting both the IAP diversion and the mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-60034530962980190312019-08-07T11:22:00.001-07:002019-08-07T12:41:38.353-07:00It Doesn't Have To Be This WayShort post to clarify something. In the past several days I’ve gotten emails from a couple of readers who have had reason to contact PERS’ Customer Support line. In two instances, callers have received misinformation concerning the assumed rate to take effect January 1, 2020. On July 26, the PERS Board approved keeping the assumed rate at 7.2%, unchanged from the rate adopted in July of 2017 mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-78007816494629483512019-05-23T12:51:00.001-07:002019-05-24T14:27:54.625-07:00Tricksters, Hucksters, and Scamps (Warning: this is long)[Note: this is a work in progress. Expect some changes over the next day or two, mostly in clarifying language and as I discover more things along the way. Legislative language is torturous to read and decipher.]
As the 2019 Oregon Legislature nears the final month of its session, the biennial hair-on-fire “PERS is going to bankrupt Oregon” faeries are out in full force. The latest attempt tomrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com56tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-41586855524943381382019-03-05T19:08:00.001-08:002019-03-09T11:02:56.524-08:00I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony)Think of this post as the ultimate Coke-Pepsi challenge. How do you compute the blended COLA if you worked for a PERS employer and retired after October 1, 2013? Well, which do you like better? Coke or Pepsi? Most people drink these interchangeably, but there are die hards who have a very specific preference. You aren’t going to be happy with my answer. The correct answer is that you get mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-70037248099711781532019-02-02T13:15:00.001-08:002019-02-02T22:25:39.321-08:00I Appear MissingI’m going to be spending this Legislative session not only appearing missing, but actually missing. I write this from an undisclosed location at a beach far way where I’ve been for the past three weeks. I will return for a brief period in mid February for my wife’s foot surgery, after which we’ll be gone again. My exposure to the Oregon Legislature is largely limited to the newsmrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-61197223152324204002018-11-30T10:45:00.001-08:002018-11-30T10:45:56.451-08:00Too Soon To TellI’m back from the far side of the world. It was a fabulous trip that not only provided endless photographic opportunities, but literally closed me off from any useful news during the week before the election and for nearly two weeks after. Only limited news got through and I enjoyed the freedom to relax and let my inner Anthropologist emerge with new people, new situations, and an endless vistamrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-67555910478252291882018-10-22T15:31:00.001-07:002018-10-22T15:31:28.568-07:00Keep It Loose, Keep It TightThings have been quiet on the PERS front these days. The new PERS Executive Director has been in his office for 3 months now, and we’ve finally gotten a new PERS By The Numbers, which confirms that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Ted Sickinger is still writing his anti-PERS screeds for the Whoregonian, and both the Whoregonian and the Portland Tribune have both endorsed a mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-38561142591528836282018-07-12T10:22:00.001-07:002018-07-12T17:50:44.990-07:00Hangout At The GallowsThe political silly season has started in earnest early this year. Over the past week, I’ve repeatedly seen two ads running regularly on several Portland TV channels during the nightly news hour. The ads are anti-Kate Brown, and depict several infamous PERS retirees who draw large monthly benefits. The ads are of the old newsreel type, and ask whether these people cured cancer, or won Nobel mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-7978247405947977432018-04-22T15:46:00.001-07:002018-04-24T13:49:13.258-07:00A Hard Rain's A- Gonna Fall (very long)This past Sunday (April 15, 2018), the New York Times ran an article on its front page (here), right below the fold, that talked about the unsustainability of public employee pensions. Of course, Oregon PERS was the featured subject of this article, principally because we are one of the few states that publicly disclose the benefits received by all PERS retirees. The title of the article mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-75406332690767172102018-02-11T11:59:00.000-08:002018-02-12T08:42:57.826-08:00Soul SuckersOn schedule, the 2018 Legislative session is up and running. While this short (35 day) session is unlikely to produce any serious fireworks, several of the usual cast of soul-sucking Rs - my own Representative Julie Parrish, and the dynamio trio from Central Oregon - continue to try to exact pounds of flesh from active PERS members None of these proposals is likely to go anywhere, butmrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-18233453662965938752017-12-22T11:29:00.001-08:002017-12-22T11:32:54.534-08:00The Far Side of The WorldI’m going to end the year on a semi-positive note, by simply making the post the lyrics to a song I love (the title of this post). A bit of context. This song was written and recorded in early 2001, before 9/11 and after the 2000 elections. It remains as fresh today as it was in 2001. It is an optimistic song, and describes my own wishes and goals for the next few years. I give it to you as mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11957094.post-71572434314956922022017-11-21T14:15:00.001-08:002017-11-21T14:15:41.192-08:00Tin Foil HatIf I were a paranoid person, I might be putting on my tin foil hat about now as I ponder two things “hanging” out there with PERS. The first is a curious email I received about 10 days ago concerning Residency Recertification. Others received a similar email, but so far as I can tell, a large swathe of others did not. The email requested that we “recertify” our Oregon residency (or perhaps mrfearless47http://www.blogger.com/profile/03454690519716783056noreply@blogger.com23