Wyoming state employees could be asked to contribute to their retirement again

by Phil Noble, Cowboy State Free Press Bureau Chief

CHEYENNE—One of the two bills the Joint Interim Appropriations Committee will consider next month would require state employees to pay half of the increase to their retirement contribution, much as private business employees have always done.

“The cold recognition is the (retirement) plan was not designed to provide cost of living adjustments (COLAs). Now we have a deficit. The question now becomes ‘how do we fund the core of the plan,’” said JAC co-chairman Sen. Phil Nicholas, R-Albany Co.

The state retirement fund dropped by $2 billion dollars immediately following the economic meltdown of Oct. 2008, according to Wyoming Retirement System director Thomas Williams. He said the fund, which was at $6.3 billion before the drop, has now recovered to $5.6 billion.

Williams told the committee COLAs for state retirees were never contemplated when the fund was set up. The expectation, he said, was that the legislature would fund those adjustments based on the Cost of Living Index from the general fund.

State employees have not been asked in recent memory to contribute to their own retirement fund, Sen. Nicholas said.

The actuarial firm hired recently by the Retirement System said the fund currently stands at 80 percent funded. “Eighty percent isn’t bad, but it’s still $2 billion, which we have to make up,” Nicholas said. “(State) employees will never like a one percent deduction from their check, but they do like a good retirement,” he said.

The JAC ultimately agreed to consider a bill next month that would require the state put up almost $50 million to increase retirement funding by 1.5 percent over the next two years. They will consider another bill that would increase contributions to 2.87 percent per year, but split the cost between the state and state employee contributions.