Retirees grabbed most of the headlines when the Oregon Supreme Court released its latest big PERS decision, the Moro case, but the high court's verdict on the 2013 legislative reforms to Oregon PERS contained good news for current members as well.
The 2013 Legislature reduced, in two ways, the annual cost-of-living adjustment for PERS retirees, which has traditionally been 2 percent each year. The court reversed that decision for those already retired, but the justices also took important action to protect benefits accrued by current PERS members who are not yet retired.
The court ruled that the Legislature may not go back and retroactively change already-accrued benefits for either retirees or current workers. For those yet-to-retire, that means any benefits accrued in PERS up to the legislation's 2013 effective date will receive the 2 percent COLA when they retire, and any benefits accrued after 2013 will be subject to the lower COLA numbers adopted by the 2013 legislation. This is referred to as a "blended" annual COLA.
"While this is a legal decision, it also shows the importance of maintaining a strong presence at the capitol," said Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Joe Baessler. "There will be legislative conversations in the future regarding COLAs and the PERS budget, and we need to be engaged in the process when that happens to best protect our members' interests."
You can read the official Moro summary from the Bennett & Hartman legal firm. Greg Hartman has long been the lead attorney for the PERS Coalition, the voluntary association of public employee unions that AFSCME co-founded in the mid-1980s to fight attacks on our members' retirement security.
|