A plan by the Alaska Senate Finance Committee to require local governments to pay more for public pensions has hit a snag.
Late Sunday, the committee canceled hearings on Senate bills 207, 208, 209 and 210, an interlocking series of proposals whose goal is to boost the local contribution to the public employees and teachers retirement systems.
With less than two weeks left before the scheduled end of the Legislative session, the cancellation is the functional equivalent of a runner stumbling in the 400-meter sprint. It’s possible to catch up — but very difficult to do so.
Speaking Monday morning, staffers working on the bills said actuarial analysis of the bills had come up with unexpected figures, and both lawmakers and staffers had to reconcile the results.
Under the Legislature’s normal operating rules, meetings must be scheduled with at least one week’s notice. As the end of the session approaches, the Legislature is expected to begin operating under the “24-hour Rule,” which requires one day’s notice before a committee meeting, on Wednesday.
Senate bills 207 through 210 propose a staged increase in local governments’ contribution to PERS and TRS over several years. SB 209 calls for raising the local government’s contribution toward public employee retirement from 22 percent to 26.5 percent by July 1, 2018. SB 207 calls for the local contribution to teachers’ retirement to rise from 12.56 percent to 22 percent by July 1, 2019. SB 208 eliminates the Alaska Performance Scholarship program and diverts the money in the scholarship fund to school districts to offset the increase in the first year and some of the increase in later years.
SB 210 revises the state’s revenue sharing program to give more money for smaller communities and less money for larger communities, then removes a property tax exemption for seniors. The theory, according to the drafters of the bills, is that revenue sharing will compensate smaller communities for their cost increase, while larger communities will be able to earn more revenue from property taxes.
All four bills have been hotly opposed by the Alaska Municipal League, individual towns and cities, the Alaska Association of School Boards and individual school districts.
Speaking Monday morning, Sen. Donny Olson, D-Golovin and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said the hearings’ cancellation doesn’t mean the bills are dead.
“I would not say that’s the case,” he said.
Rather, the committee is instead “concentrating on some of the bigger, low-hanging fruit” when it comes to balancing Alaska’s $4 billion annual budget deficit.
• Contact Empire reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or 419-7732.
Related link: juneauempire.com/state/2016-03-28/senate-cost-cutters-turn-retirement-programs
