PROPOSED
IN SENATE 2002 SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET
(Proposed Substitute Senate Bill - PSSB
6387 )
SOLVING
THE 1.5 BILLION DOLLAR PROBLEM
The proposed Senate 2002 supplemental budget takes
a four-part approach to bringing the 2001-2003
biennial budget back in balance through:
- Budget
Reductions and Savings ($654 Million)
-
Securtizing Tobacco Settlement Payments ($420
Million)
- Use
of General Fund Reserves and Money Transfers
($308 Million)
- Revenue
Increases ($83 Million)
PENSIONS
PENSION CONTRIBUTION RATE ADJUSTMENTS -
$63 Million General Fund-State Savings . . .
The Senate budget (in separate legislation, HB
2782) includes reductions in employer and
state contribution rates for PERS, TRS, SERS
and LEOFF Plan 2 and employee contribution
rates for the Plan 2 retirement systems. Most
of the savings ($54 million) is in the K-12 system
The
1995-2000 experience study by the State Actuary
showed that the contribution rates for PERS, TRS,
SERS and LEOFF were higher than necessary to fully
fund those systems. Effective April 1, 2002, employer
contribution rates will be reduced from 1.54 percent
to 1.10 percent for PERS; 1.54 percent to 0.96
percent for SERS; and 2.75 percent to 1.05 percent
for TRS. The basic state contribution for LEOFF
2 will be reduced from 1.80 percent to 1.75 percent.
Plan
2 employee contribution rates will be reduced
from 4.50 percent to 4.39 percent for LEOFF 2;
0.88 percent to 0.65 percent for PERS 2; 0.88
percent to 0.35 percent for SERS 2 and 1.23 percent
to 0.15 percent for TRS 2
PSSB
6387 does not address any changes to Plan
1 pension systems at this time.
