Rhode Island (excerpt)
Providence Journal — June 18, 2009
PENSIONS: Despite threats of a legal challenge, the committee voted for a slate of pension cuts aimed at public school teachers and state employees, including new judges, which could save an estimated $55 million next year. The National Education Association “made it very clear to folks from the beginning of these conversations that we would end up in court,” said executive director Robert Walsh.
The package does not go as far or save as much money as plans proposed by either Carcieri or a House study-commission. And none of the changes would apply to anyone already eligible to retire on Sept. 30, a move aimed at averting the kind of mass exodus the state saw in the weeks before the last major retiree benefit change.
But for others, the new rules would take effect Oct. 1.
Under the new rules, the state would adopt age 62 as the new “target” age for retirement. However, the minimum age for retirement would vary for each employee depending on how long the employee had worked and how close he or she was to qualifying for retirement under the current rules. For example: a state employee who started work at age 25 who could retire today at age 53 and collect an immediate pension, would have to wait until age 53 and three months.
The new plan would also key pension calculations — now based on a three-year salary average — to a worker’s highest five-year salary average.
For judges hired after July 1, there would be a cutback in benefits from a maximum of 100 percent of pay for the longest-serving judges to either 65 percent or 80 percent of their five-year average, depending on their age and years of work. Correctional officers and a cadre of state nurses who can retire at age 50 now, would have to work at least five years longer.
