The UPEA State Board arranged a meeting with Senator Liljenquist and retirement system stakeholders, including the Utah School Employees Association, Utah Education Association, and Cops United for Retirement Equity. Liljenquist discussed potential legislation at the January 4th meeting and answered questions about changes to the retirement system. His proposed legislation should amount to four bills.
His first bill would allow employees hired after July 1st, 2011 to select either a) a defined contribution plan administered by URS wherein 8% will be deposited into a 401(a) plan; or b) a hybrid defined benefit/defined contribution plan. The hybrid option would include a 5% DB plan and 3% DC contribution. As rates fluctuate, the 3% would either increase or decrease to compensate for the changes in rates. Various components of the new system would include: retirement withdrawals to begin at age 59, 1% service credit per year, and a 5 year final average salary calculation. Both programs would require a 4-year vesting. This also combines all retirement systems into one system.
His second bill would eliminate the 1.5% salary contribution into current employees 401(k) and put that money into the pension system to help address the current 2.1% contribution rate increase.
His third bill would increase the years of service for retirement for current employees using the following schedule:
Employees in the big retirement system
24-30 years of service would see no change
20-24 years of service would be eligible for retirement after 31 years
16-20 years of service would be eligible for retirement after 32 years
10-16 years of service would be eligible for retirement after 33 years
4-10 years of service would be eligible for retirement after 34 years
Less than 4 years of service would be eligible to retire after 35 years
For Public Safety/Firefighters/Judges would also increase the retirement service.
18-20 years would see no changes
15-18 years of service would be eligible to retire after 21 years
12-15 years of service would be eligible to retire after 22 years
9-12 years of service would be eligible to retire after 23 years
6-9 years of service would be eligible to retire after 24 years
Less than 6 years would be eligible to retire after 25 years
His fourth bill would change the benefits for retired/rehired employees. For rehires after July 1, 2010, this bill would require suspension of the pension payments upon rehire, but allow rehired employees to earn additional service credit and also require the employer to pay the full URS contribution rate into the retirement system. This would also remove the service cap for public safety, which is currently 30 years. For rehires prior to July 1, 2010, the bill suspends the 401K contribution to the employee and requires agencies to pay the contribution rate to URS.
As soon as the bills are made available for viewing, we will inform our members. This is just an overview of what is expected to be contained in the bills and may change prior to finalization.
UPEA is working toward a better solution that will keep retirement whole for all employees.
UPEA has also called for an independent actuarial analysis and more time to educate stakeholders on the issue.
