State Rep. Louis Blessing recently applauded his colleagues in the House majority for confronting tough problems long avoided at the Statehouse. “How many times do you see local, state and federal governments kick the can down the road?” the Cincinnati Republican said. “This caucus picks the can up, fixes it and puts it back on the shelf. And then they want to do more.”
Perhaps Blessing will recall that because of excesses driven by Gov. John Kasich and House Republicans, practically nothing was accomplished in updating the state’s collective-bargaining law. Meanwhile, state lawmakers shoved many of the most difficult budget decisions down to school districts and local governments.
Blessing delivered his comments last week as part of the House majority outlining its legislative agenda for the year. William Batchelder, the House speaker, placed priority on changes to school funding, workers’ compensation and even collective bargaining, pledging to move more deliberatively and carefully on the last item. Missing from the list was repair work to the state’s five public pension systems. The speaker noted the recent hiring of a consulting team to examine the systems, its report expected sometime during the summer.
Leap into legislative action once the report arrives? The presumption is: This is an election year, lawmakers and others distracted, the Statehouse most likely to look at pension reform next year.
Worth stressing is that the hiring of the consultants looked like kicking the can down the road. Or it may be part of seeking most dramatic if hardly warranted change, abandoning the defined benefit model for a defined contribution plan.
Lawmakers should take care to be well informed before taking action. Actually, they have had much time to plunge deeply into the workings of the pension systems. It has been more than two years since the pension systems presented to the legislature their own credible and comprehensive changes, ways to bolster their financial positions for the decades ahead.
The steps included narrowing eligibility, requiring employees to work longer or retire at a later date before collecting a full pension. Three of the five funds would increase employee contributions. None calls for a taxpayer bailout, the aim of proposals to protect against such an outcome.
Some lawmakers criticize the systems for rosy forecasts. Yet the time long ago passed for reaching a consensus on this and other matters. Lawmakers have had before them a framework for addressing the challenges. Now they intend to wait for the consultants to report, then for the election to pass, their earliest date for action coming next spring, or three and a half years after the pension systems put their proposals on the table.
