Issue Position: Pension and Health Reform for Public Workers

Issue Position

In tough times, we have to make tough choices to build a better future. We made the tough decisions to guarantee a pension for public workers while saving taxpayers billions.

Our state pension and health care benefits system was broken. Without changes, our pension system would have been insolvent by 2018. Now pensions are guaranteed. To save the system and preserve benefits for future retirees, public workers will pay a little more -- just one percent more per year for seven years. COLAs will kick back in when the pension fund is restored to 80 percent of its obligations. There will be no changes for current retirees or those with 20 years or more of service.

We created a sliding scale for health care to protect middle class workers. Some workers will pay as little as three percent with the average teacher paying 17 percent for family coverage. (For percentages by salary, please click the link further down this page.) Also, we're offering each state worker a variety of health insurance coverage options to lower premiums and allow each individual to get the health care that best fits their needs -- without paying for unnecessary services.

We know how this impacts people personally. Celeste Riley herself is a teacher, but she's also a taxpayer. She voted to make herself and other public workers pay a little more to save taxpayers $120 billion over the next 30 years.

The new law fixes the dangerously underfunded retirement system ensuring the solvency of state workers retirement for years to come. It requires some sacrifice, including sharing in health care payments, but without significant reform the system would have collapsed.

Click here for charts showing the percent of health care premiums that public employees will pay out of pocket. The sliding scale is based on salary.

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