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Police,
firefighters earn those pensions
Most
people do not realize that firefighters and police officers in Portland are
not covered by the Public Employees Retirement System. In fact, apparently
even Mr. Roehr is unaware that firefighters and police officers in Portland
are not covered by workers' compensation or Social Security. For
an honest discussion of what alternative retirement and disability systems
could replace the current system, one must acknowledge that any change
invokes a law that would require taxpayers to bear the cost of entering
firefighters and police officers into the expensive workers' compensation
and Social Security systems. That expensive fact -- a conservative estimate
of the cost for just the Social Security portion is $6 million -- is not
included in Mr. Roehr's argument. The
increased cost of entering the workers' compensation and Social Security
systems notwithstanding, Mr. Roehr ignores the fact that all of the
solutions currently sought by Salem lawmakers to the PERS problem are
contained within the current FPD&R system in Portland. Portland's
retirement system is insulated from the economic swings of the economy. Its
members receive benefits based on a defined benefits formula, which is
exactly what lawmakers are proposing for PERS. In
fact, benefits under the FPD&R were found to be at or below the benefits
for firefighters and police officers in comparable cities. The levy that
funds the system has existed since being authorized by Portland voters in
1948. The levy has been at 60 percent or less of the maximum allowable
assessment since that time, and it costs the average homeowner approximately
$243 per year. In
over a half-century, there has never been a time when the general fund of
the city was even close to having to pay retirement and disability costs for
Portland's firefighters and police officers. The only possibility of that
happening is if a plan such as the one Mr. Roehr advocates is adopted. To
create a so-called "funded" system (not actually cash, but rather
cash invested) within the FPD&R system would require the current
generation of taxpayers to pay not only for currently retired firefighters
and police officers but also to begin setting money aside for those
firefighters and police officers who are currently working. In other words,
one generation of taxpayers would be required to pay for two generations of
firefighters and police officers. Additionally,
if Portland switched, as Mr. Roehr suggests, to a system allowing
firefighters or police officers to invest their money in the same way as
current PERS employees do, and also added the new costs of workers'
compensation and Social Security, the system would most certainly go over
the maximum allowed for in the levy and require that the general fund make
up the difference. I
think that Portland citizens -- and, for that matter, Oregonians -- have
seen the consequences of political philosophies bent on curtailing funding
for services such as schools and social services. This same philosophy in
Oregon created a "kicker" that sends dollars back to taxpayers
instead of to a "rainy day" fund that would shield our state from
the fiscal crisis we are currently suffering. Oregon's economic woes are
punctuated by a political stalemate in Salem that continually threatens the
livability of our beloved state. Citizens
of Portland should be wary of so-called "fixes" by the political
right. Their philosophy has been tried and has failed in our state for well
over a decade. Let's not let that same group attack the pensions of our
firefighters and police officers. Randy Leonard is a member of the Portland City Council. He is a former member of the Oregon Legislature and was a lieutenant with the Portland Fire Bureau until his election to the City Council in November 2002. Copyright ©
2002 Global Action on Aging
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