Author Archive | Admin

Merger Roundtable August 30 Report

On Tuesday, August 30, 2019 the 2nd Roundtable Meeting on the proposed TRS 1/LEOFF 1 merger was held in Olympia. Who was there? About thirty people attended. The principal speaker was the State Actuary, Matt Smith.  Also in attendance was Ann Hall the assistant Attorney General assigned to the Select Committee on Pension Policy (SCPP), […]

Continue Reading

TRS Underfunding

One of the major concerns of LEOFF 1 members about the proposed TRS 1/LEOFF 1 merger is the failure of the legislature to properly fund the TRS 1 pension plan.  In fact, the under funding has been so bad that there is no reason to expect the legislature will address these issues in the future.  […]

Continue Reading

California court opens door to changing public employee pensions

August 22, 2016 BY DAN WALTERS dwalters@sacbee.com California’s perpetual debate over public employee pensions has always revolved about what’s called the “California rule” – a series of court decisions that seemingly prohibit any changes in pension benefits once they are granted. The debate has intensified in recent years as the California Public Employee Retirement System […]

Continue Reading

SB 6668 – Why Merge?

On February 24, 2016 SB 6668 was introduced. It seems a simple proposition designed to mend a serious unfunded liability in the Teachers Retirement System Plan 1 (TRS 1). That system has a significant deficit and is funded only at the level of 69%. The bill proposed to take all of the money out of […]

Continue Reading

Needed Vigilance

Originally published on 08/16/2014  “A contract is a contract, except when it isn’t.” We have just published a couple of recent articles dealing with a State Supreme Court decision relative to a gainsharing provision in the Teachers Retirement System. See  this article for details… While these decisions have no direct impact on LEOFF 1, they […]

Continue Reading

Supreme Court rulings issued in gain sharing, UCOLA lawsuits

August 14, 2014 The Washington State Supreme Court today issued opinions in two cases related to the state’s pension systems. One case involves gain sharing provisions and early retirement benefits for members of certain state retirement plans; the other involves an annual increase for retirees in two closed pension plans (also known as the Uniform […]

Continue Reading

Retired Police – Right to Carry Firearm

Improving the Concealed Carry Law This article is from the Law Officer  – Wednesday, January 12, 2011 – by Laura L. Scarry President Barack Obama quietly signed the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act Improvements Act of 2010 on Oct. 12, 2010. It went into effect immediately. This Act, S.1132, amends the previous Act, frequently referred […]

Continue Reading

Social Security Windfall Elimination Provision

This article was originally published on 10/17/2008.  It has some good general information so we are re-posting it.  It is interesting to note that not much has happened on this issue since 2008. The Social Security Administration has put out another update to the Windfall Elimination Provision. Most Americans pay into the Social Security system […]

Continue Reading

Social Security Offsets – Current Status

The Social Security Fairness Act now boasts a record 352 bipartisan cosponsors in the House and 37 cosponsors in the Senate. In November, 2007, the Senate Finance Committee, Subcommittee on Social Security, held a hearing on the offsets, followed in February 2008 by a hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee. These hearings, and […]

Continue Reading