Jackson Jambalaya

If you watch the recording of the PERS board meeting, just after Daniel Sparks gives one of his speeches about all the Legislature did to save PERS last session, including eliminating SLRP because "it was a bad look," you will hear the actuary explain that because they eliminated SLRP for new legislators there will be fewer and fewer people paying into SLRP so the employer (the State) will have to put more money into it to cover payments to the SLRP retirees. Add that to the issues Tier 5's 35 year retirement has created for first responders and it is clear that the PERS changes Delbert forced in exchange for the tax cut were not well thought out.

This has to stop. It should be ended asap.

The financial benefits from Tier 5 won't appear for decades, but the hiring issues local police/fire departments see, as well as public schools, will be immediate. The Legislature passed Tier 5 so they could go home and claim they did something to "fix" PERS. They didn't do anything. They did what every Legislature has done since their counterparts in 1999 created the problem -- they dicked around and prayed no one would notice.

Doesn't matter if anyone likes it or not, the State of Mississippi has an unquestionable legal obligation to pay benefits to every current retiree/beneficiary, and anyone who retires under Tiers 1 through 4 (straight benefits -- the COLA *can* be changed, but good luck getting the fraidy cats in either the House or the Senate to mess with that). Even if the PERS fund itself disappears, the State is still on the hook -- PEER and dozens of attorneys serving at least four governors have done the legal legwork on that question, and it is what it is. People can bitch about it until the Rapture, but the laws are the laws.

As long as the only Mississippians who might see any pain (like potential COLA impact) from PERS issues were public employees, then Legislators and most taxpayers were content to do nothing other than complain -- no one has ever lost politically beating up on public school employees ("woke morons who get summers off") or state employees ("lazy woke idiots suckling at the taxpayer teat"). But the bond rating agencies (not generally considered woke) coming for the state is going to cause a world of hurt. It's going to cost more for Mississippi and its cities and counties to borrow money, and more taxpayer money will end up going to debt service.

Filling that funding hole could have been relatively pain-free 20 years ago, but the Legislature chose not to do it. As a result, the hole has gotten bigger every year. They created the problem, they ignored the problem, and they own the problem. They need to find the funds (and the balls) to fix it.

We are also in Year 4 of a bull market. I’d be interested to see how the unfunded liability has changed during this bull market.

Told you the 13th check is the problem. The investment % the fund earned should be put back into the fund and not given out. The money from income should go back to fund like any other program does. Think where you would be had the income gone back into the fund for the last 15 years, up 25% in the total fund holdings?

This bull market year 4, 50% of the income growth is being given out in 13th checks, you can't do that, 100% has to go back in the fund.

Must be time for another tax cut

The legislature in charge of PERS...what could go wrong?

If adding new employees is a solution for balancing PERS cash flow then the legislature needs to instruct agency heads to quit hiring so many contractors to do the work of state employees.

Will the last one in the room turn off the lights

First responders, etc. should be on exactly the same system as any other full-time PERS positions, and should be prohibited from double-dipping the same as other PERS recipients.

I told my rep from rankin county I was against the legislature taking control of PERS. They’ve been trying to get their hands on it for years. Great going! Y’all have managed to ruin it in record time. Maybe you can put all state retirees on the legislature’s retirement plan, and while you bunch of imbeciles are at it, put them on your insurance plan too!

The MS government employee headcount has been shrinking for years.

If we have fewer retirees than normal last year, I wonder how many of those positions were filled (which would be the only way we address the unfunded liability since we're hoping we replace "expensive" retirees with "cheap" [eventual] retirees).

The people to be harmed are now 35-40 years old who’ve worked for a state agency, paid in for 15-20 years, and who will try to retire in 15-20 years. Their future is not what they think it is.

Huh?

No new employees should be enrolled going forward — new hires should be given a 401(k)-style retirement account instead. Current participants should be offered buyouts or opt-out options, with clear rules and firm timelines set by the government. Dragging this out only makes the problem worse. Anyone who chooses to stay past those windows has to accept the risk of a significant haircut, even 30%, because the math simply doesn’t work anymore.

We were sold on gambling as the magic solution that would fix everything.

Why didn’t it?

2:07, please explain. You can't take back PERs. I can assure you, they will get paid their retirement.

Also, COLA's are a part of structured retirement pensions, what PERs is. You either get it monthly or one lump sum(13th check). I bet most of you don't know there is a COLA in social security benefits. Instead, you just bitch about the 13th check.

One issue that they need to fix is people that work a normal state agency job making $40-50-60k and then get promoted to a higher office and then make $100k+ then retire after 4 years.

For example, and this is just two.

One works at a state training academy for most of his years, then runs and get to be mayor of a large suburb. Makes a good bit more than the academy. Runs for state level position(most likely to increase that high 4), doesn't get it, then reverts back to mayor and takes a sizeable pay increase.

The other say is a teacher & coach for a lot of years. Serves 25 years in legislature. Leaves and heads up a state agency for exactly 4 years, then retires.

I am not throwing shade at these two examples, however, they worked the majority of their years of service at a lower annual income and PERs contribution and right at the end catapulted to a much higher 4 years that their entire retirement will be based off of. That happens year in and year out, all sorts of people. If I were a public employee, I'd be trying to do the same thing.

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

This is the same pathetic state that blew a 1 billion dollar tobacco trust fund. Both republicans and democrats pissed it away. Now they have given themselves fiduciary responsibility instead of the PERS board.

Man the class action lawsuits are going to be horrible in the decades to come.

@1:13, most first responders are. The only ones on a different plan are the sworn officers of the Highway Safety Patrol (the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol Retirement System). If someone retires from MHSPRS, that person can then go work full-time for an employer covered only by PERS, get vested, and earn a second benefit.

Fire, police, etc., who are employed by cities and counties are covered only by PERS -- they cannot earn a PERS benefit and then go work full-time for another PERS-covered employer. Same is true for sworn officers of non-Highway Safety Patrol agencies, like the Bureau of Narcotics.

You should brush up on Tier 5. https://www.pers.ms.gov/Tier5

@2:05, Many of them aren't filled, the PINS are taken away by the Legislature. This is particularly damning in IT departments. An agency has trouble filling an App-Developer position because most agencies will not pay the market rate for an experienced developer. So the position is open for a few months while the agency searches. When the Legislative session opens, they "sweep" all the open PINS agencies have. The Legislative leadership goes on TV to brag how they are reducing the size of government.

What they FAIL to say is that the IT demands on the agency still exist, so the only recourse the agency has is to issue an RFP for tech support, and companies from all over the US bid for the contract. The agency ends up contracting with a company that a) isn't located in Mississippi, b) often is staffed with international employees who require visa sponsorship and make four-to-five times the hourly cost of a state employee, and c) have hires former statewide elected officials to lobby the Legislature and ITS for them.

Fewer state employees? Yes. Smaller, less expensive government? No. Taxpayer money staying in Mississippi by paying Mississippians to work? No.

Agree with 3:22. High four needs to be high ten. There are several departments and agencies that have figured out how to game the system. Get your high four and you are expected to get out of the way for the next guy.

Same for teachers that make squat for 20 years and then get a mail order PhD and get a high paying administrator job.

The only "first" responders that can do that are State Troopers. Regular cops, deputies, and fire fighters don't have that option.

I've heard that the state legislature is going to push for a DROP for retirees. You can retire, collect your benefits, and go back to work for the state/local agency. You will still pay into PERS like normal but you will not gain any additional retirement benefits. So say a Captain from Southaven retirees and goes into the DROP. If he became Chief, he would not get a new "high 4" or any additional percentage towards years of service.

It will take changing the COLA calculation for future retirees, changing the high four year calculation to another formula, possibly the average salary for a career, going to a 401K; there are numerous possibilities and will take all or a combination of many.
The only thing for sure is that PERS will have to have a dedicated source of funding. Since the government can only collect revenue through TAXES that means a tax increase. As 11:16 explained the State has a legal obligation to pay the promised benefits.
Since no elected official at any level has ever had the guts to tell the citizens a hard truth I predict the can will continue to be kicked down the road until the whole mess ends up in court and a federal judge forces the state to impose a massive tax increase.