Increased school, state patrol retirement contributions advance

Employee contribution rates for the school employee, Class V school employee and state patrol retirement plans would increase under a bill given first-round approval April 18.

Introduced by Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist at the request of the governor, LB382 is part of the governor’s budget recommendation to the Legislature.

Under the bill as introduced, the employee contribution rate for the School Employee Retirement System would increase to 9.28 percent on Sept. 1, 2011. The rate then would decrease to 8.28 percent on Sept. 1, 2013, and to 7.28 percent on Sept. 1, 2014. School districts match the employee contribution rate at 101 percent.

The employee contribution rate for the State Patrol Retirement System would increase 3 percent to 19 percent of an employee’s monthly compensation on July 1, 2011. The state’s contribution rate also would increase to 19 percent. On July 1, 2013, contribution rates for both employees and the state would decrease to 16 percent.

Nordquist said state patrol members do not participate in the Social Security program, causing their retirement contribution rates to be considerably higher than those of other state employees.

A Nebraska Retirement Systems Committee amendment, adopted 41-0, would make the following adjustments related to school employee retirement plans.

Beginning Sept. 1, 2011, the member contribution rate in the School Employees Retirement System would increase 0.6 percent to 8.88 percent. The rate then would increase to 9.78 percent on Sept. 1, 2012 and remain in effect through August 31, 2017, when the contribution rate would be reduced to 7.28 percent.

In addition, the amendment would extend to fiscal year 2016-17 the 1 percent state contribution rate in the school employee plan and the Omaha Class V School Employee Retirement System, currently scheduled to sunset in FY2013-14. The rate would return to 0.7 percent on July 1, 2017.

State funding for the purchasing power cost-of-living allowance in the Class V school plan would sunset in FY2013-14.

Finally, the amendment incorporated into the bill provisions of LB510, introduced by the committee, which would increase the contribution rate for members of the Class V school plan by 1 percent to 9.3 percent beginning Sept. 1, 2011.

Nordquist said the bill reflects the willingness of school employees and members of the state patrol to do their fair share to help alleviate the state’s budget crisis. Nebraska retirement plans lost approximately $1.5 billion in investments during the recent market downtown, he said.

“[This bill] certainly is not a silver bullet,” Nordquist said, “but it gets us on a pathway to shore up these plans.”

Wilber Sen. Russ Karpisek supported the bill, saying increased contribution rates will not be easy for teachers and patrol members to absorb, but that both groups were willing to compromise.

“They have come to the table and they have worked it out,” he said.

LB382 advanced to select file on a 42-0 vote.