Utahns split over state retirement system overhaul

SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns are evenly split over whether the state retirement system should be overhauled to compensate for a $6.5 billion shortfall.

A new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll found that 47 percent of respondents believe lawmakers should make changes to the Utah Retirement System. But 46 percent said they shouldn't.

The poll, conducted by Dan Jones & Associates, has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent. A total of 410 Utahns were surveyed statewide Feb. 17 and 18.

The sponsor of a package of three bills intended to restructure the retirement system said if Utahns realized how much money was at stake, they'd overwhelmingly support the changes.

"If you put it in terms of, should the state have to pay $400 million a year for 25 years to cover the loss, put it in dollar terms, people then understand that hey, this is a big deal," said Sen. Dan Liljenquist, R-Bountiful.

"I don't think it becomes real to people until they see how much it is going to cost us," he said. Given the complexity of the issue, though, Liljenquist said he wasn't surprised that Utahns are divided over what should be done.

The head of the Utah Public Employees Association said the division shows lawmakers are acting too quickly to change the pension plan that covers state and local government employees including schoolteachers, police officers and firefighters.

"It supports the argument that more time is needed," Wood said. "It isn't just as cut-and-dried as restructuring the benefits for new hires."

Friday, two of Liljenquist's bills restructuring the state retirement system were given final approval by the Senate and now go to the House.

A third retirement bill, eliminating the state contribution to employee 401(k) plans, was put on hold by Liljenquist and may not advance.

"It's always been a financial tool if we need it. It frees up $23 million a year," Liljenquist said of that bill, SB94. "As we go through the budget process, if we feel like we need that, it's an option."

Liljenquist is also the sponsor of SB43, which would stop retirees who are rehired after July 1, 2010, from collecting both a paycheck and a pension, and SB63, which dramatically reduces pension benefits for employees hired after July 1, 2011. The two bills don't affect current workers.

When those measures were debated on the Senate floor Thursday, most Democrats and a lone Republican, Sen. Jon Greiner, R-Ogden, said the state was overreacting to the shortfall and should take more time to study solutions.

The Utah Retirement System lost almost 30 percent of its investments in the economic crash two years ago.

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