The following is a copy of a memorandum sent by Senator Kim Elton to the Finance Committee summarizing recent findings by Buck Consultants, retirement system analysts who work for the State. In this document, “DB” is short for “defined benefit,” the classic retirement plan which includes a pension, and is like the type of plan Alaska public employees had before SB 141 became law (the pensions are affected of new employees hired after the bill became law, and does not directly affect public employees hired before July 1, 2006).

“DC” means “direct contribution,” which is what public employees receive now in Alaska for a retirement plan. It is not a pension, but rather something like a 401k savings account–vastly inferior from the point of view of retirement security. Now we also know it is not less expensive for the state than the former traditional pension retirement plan. Read the rest of this entry »

Gayle Harbo Retired after teaching mathematics in Fairbanks for 25 years. She was very good at what she did. In 1989 she was named Alaska Teacher of the Year. She is still very good at what she does, but now she is Secretary of the Alaska Retirement Management Board (ARMB). As such, she is one of nine trustees that have fiduciary responsibility for the billions of dollars of assets of the state’s retirement systems (there are seven different retirement systems!).

Ms. Harbo is also a member of the Alaska Retired Educators Association (AKREA), which is a local affiliate of the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA). In a recent AKREA newsletter, Ms. Harbo wrote an excellent summary of the history and consequences of SB 141, which destroyed the pension system for Alaskan public employees. I am pleased to reprint her excellent article here. Note that additional information on SB 141 and related issues can be found on the ACPP blog under the blog category “Retirement Security.” Read the rest of this entry »

I have written extensively about the recent destruction of the pension systems for public employees in Alaska (traditional “defined benefit” plans), and their replacement with “defined contribution” plans similar to 401k plans, which are little more than savings accounts. Some time ago a legislator mentioned to me that he thought this was the worst piece of legislation passed in many years in Alaska–and I would have to agree.

However, this is what is important: the struggle by ideologues and by those who believe they can profit from the destruction of traditional pension plans for public workers is increasingly being met by a powerful upsurge of resistance by public employees and their families who understand the critical necessity of maintaining or returning to a defined benefit plan, in other words, a traditional pension. Two recent victories come to mind. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is an important summary of recent events relating to the resurrection of truly terrible public policy, the privatization of Social Security. This summary is courtesy of the August 4 issue of Friday Alert, the weekly electronic newsletter of The Alliance of Retired Americans. Read the rest of this entry »

This message that follows was recently released by the Alaska Public Employees Association. The Association has played a leading role in the struggle to preserve retirement security in Alaska, and to preserve the ability of the public sector in this state to remain competetive to recruit teachers, police, firefighters, and other key positions. Thanks also to the Retired Public Employees Association for their persistent efforts on behalf of retirees in Alaska, and for helping to distribute information on this extremely important topic. Read the rest of this entry »

During the last year I have written a number of blog entries regarding Senate Bill 141 and the destruction of the Public Employees Retirement System and the Teachers Retirement System in the state of Alaska. I would like to give you an update now about the status of Senate Bill 141. This update comes from the most recent issue of RPEA news and was written by Sam Trivette, President of RPEA. I would like to add here that RPEA and Sam Trivette have been in the forefront of the fight against SB 141 in the attempt to protect the retirement for thousands of future public employees and teachers in the state of Alaska, and their families. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite everything you may have heard in the last year about the “unfunded liability crisis of the public employees retirement system,” and despite everything you may have heard about how the debt has grown to billions of dollars and is increasing year after year, the facts indicate that there may be no financial crisis at all. An examination of the same facts that have been available to everyone appears to indicate that the “unfunded liability crisis” may be nothing more than an empty, mean-spirited, politically motivated manipulation of the media message. Worse yet, Senate Bill 141 which destroys the public employee retirement system and replaces it with a vastly inferior retirement savings account and a vastly inferior health insurance plan, is totally unnecessary. Let’s just take a look at the existing facts, the facts that have been generated by the actuarial experts hired by the state. Read the rest of this entry »

I am pleased to present in full this excellent article written by Senator Kim Elton. It was originally published in the April 28 addition of Senator Elton’s newsletter, Off the Record. In this article Senator Elton brings us up to date on some of the critical issues that have come to light since the passage last year of Senate Bill 141 which destroys Alaska’s public employees pension system, and seriously undermines future efforts to recruit qualified teachers, police, and other critical public employees in public service to the people of Alaska. The needless and mean-spirited destruction of this important pension system will come into effect July 1 of this year unless current versions of House Bill 475 or Senate Bill 293 are passed. Read the rest of this entry »