Recently the Pension Benefits, Design, and Funding Task Force (Task Force) released their final report, which included recommendations to fix the retirement systems for state workers and teachers (Retirement Systems). Given the stakeholders involved and the desire to have majority approval, the report’s recommendations were seen as the best that could be done for now. A good start considering the circumstances, but they do not include the systemic solutions needed to make the Systems sustainable.

In November CFV released a new report that compares the wages and benefits of teachers and state employees to the private sector and what that means for the current discussions around pension reform. If you missed it, you can find the report here.

We are planning to continue into Phase 2 of this project over the coming months, which MAY include:

1. A further in-depth comparison of specific jobs between the public and private sector.
2. An analysis of hiring competitiveness between the public and private sector.
3. Comparing benefits offered by top-rated employers in the private sector to the public sector offerings.
4. Analyzing how many private sector workers it takes to support one position in state government.

If you have additional ideas, we would love to hear about them! You can contact us here.

Please support this project by pledging below.

Thousands of state employees and teachers are counting on the stability of pension funds and the longer we wait the worse the problem gets. Two weeks ago we called on the legislature to pass balanced pension reform that does not put the burden of solving the issue solely on taxpayers or employees. If you missed it, you can find our press releases here.

In order to further our goal of accountability and meaningful action on pension reform, we would like to investigate potential conflicts of interest that lawmakers might have. For example a legislator who is currently receiving pension fund benefits or a spouse who is a covered employee. But, we need your help to do it. We need to raise $2000 to complete a review of all 30 members of the Senate.

Your pledge of support will allow us to do this work and publish a list of legislators who should recuse themselves when a pension bill comes up for a vote on the floor.