Federal pension system upgrade cancelled

In an earlier entry, we noted that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management had moved ahead with plans to develop an electronic administration system for the federal pension system.

Now, FederalNewsRadio reports the plan has been scuttled by the House of Representatives.

The move has Office of Personnel Management Director Linda Springer scratching her head. "We had a little trouble in the House. The House zeroed out our funding for this. I don't understand that, because it's their pension." Springer says "a lot of things have astounded me since I've been here, but that would really take the cake."

Ms. Springer is hopeful that the "trouble," as she describes it, can be fixed in the senate.

NJ governor delays pension reforms

In the wake of its highly-publicized wrangling over taxes, New Jersey will hold off on an effort to reform the state's public pension system.

In a recent radio interview Corzine said he plans to address some changes starting with negotiations for a new government worker contract this fall. The contracts for most public employee unions expire at the end of June.

"We have to have pension reform and health care reform, and it ought to be done in the standard way that you deal with your employees, through a contract negotiation," Corzine said Tuesday on New Jersey 101.5 FM. "We're going to be calling for that early, and that's going to, I hope, save both money and make sure that public employees will be secure that they'll actually get what's promised."

Some changes, however, can be accomplished through new laws, and Corzine recommended several in his March budget speech, saying pension abuses damage government credibility.

He called for raising the minimum salary for workers to qualify for a government pension, giving newly elected officials a 401(k)-like retirement plan, instead of the more generous defined-benefit government pension, and taking state contractors out of the pension system.

LA early retirement geared to reducing state workforce

Government officials in Louisiana hope that an early retirement law passed during the 2006 legislative session will eliminate hundreds of jobs from the state workforce.

From the Baton Rouge Business Report:

Louisiana will begin offering state workers an early retirement option next year in hopes that payroll costs, and the annual budget, will deflate accordingly. Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed the legislation last week, prompted largely by last fall's hurricanes. Hordes of state workers either lost the buildings where they once worked, or lost everything else. Additionally, many are moving out of the state or are suffering from various ailments, says Rep. Warren Triche, the Chackbay Democrat who sponsored the act. The program will offer early retirement to members of the Louisiana State Employees' Retirement System who are at least 50 years old with 10 years of service. If a state employee decides to take advantage of the program, he or she will receive a retirement benefit equal to as much as 2% of their average compensation multiplied by the number of years of creditable service. Only one of every three positions left vacant by the program will be refilled, Triche says, unless the commissioner of administration and the secretary of state Civil Service decide to retain the post. The program would run from Jan. 1, 2007, through Dec. 31, 2008. Anticipated savings equal roughly $4 million.