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), […]
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. […]
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 […]
A Member’s Thoughts on SB-6668
Editor’s Note: The following is from an email circulated by Bradd Reynolds, PD Centralia Retired LEOFF1. I am posting it without edits but want to encourage readers to recognize there are some errors and misstatements. They are minor but can serve as an alert to double check on all you read — that includes the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]