February 23, 2011


House Retirement Bills Pass Out of Committee
House Bills 1002, 1007 and 1011 all recently passed out of the House Economic Development committee and are headed to a vote on the House floor. While all of the house bills will preserve the defined benefit system for school employees, they will eliminate cost of living increases. Currently, educators generally receive a 2 percent COLA, compared to 4 percent for public employees.
The retirement house bills will:
Eliminate your already reduced cost of living increase.
Diminish your spending power overtime.
Oklahoma school employees deserve a defined benefit plan that provides for cost of living increases.

TAKE ACTION: Tell your house member to preserve cost of living increases.



No More Defined Benefits: SB 892 Does Away with Public Pensions
SB 892 just passed out of the Senate Retirement committee. The bill is bad for all public employees. SB 892 would eliminate defined benefits and switch over to a defined contribution system. Also, the employer would contribute a lower percentage to the fund. Currently, school employees contribute 7 percent of their salary to retirement, while the district contributes 9.5 percent. The bill would allow employers to pay “up to” 10 percent.

TAKE ACTION: Tell your senator to vote no on SB 892:

Changes the retirement calculations, resulting in lower retirement checks. Note: It reduces the retirement factor from years of service+ final average salary + 2 % to years of service + final average salary + 1.5%.
Increases retirement age
Eliminates defined benefits
Reduces employer contributions