PERS is out of control

Published 5:00 am Friday, October 12, 2012

I was once again disgusted by yet another “PERS increase” headline in The Bulletin on Sept. 29. I own a small, private-sector business and have struggled through this tough economy just to stay afloat. I don’t have anyone from whom to demand pay increases and financially unsustainable retirement benefits.

But many public employees feel that somehow the taxpayers owe them these ridiculously generous benefits. Outgoing PERS chairman James Dalton summed it up in the article, in part saying, “We have to go to the employer contributions to fill that hole.”

Well, the taxpayers are the employers. And as one of those taxpayers, my response is: Stay out my pocket! If most of us in the private sector want pay increases or retirement benefits, we have to self-fund it. With regards to the shocking $16 billion liability that exists in PERS, it’s time that public employees either take cuts, or contribute the difference themselves like many in the private sector have had to do.

This sense of entitlement must end.

One reason that this PERS funding problem continues is that the majority of those elected and publicly employed to oversee the PERS fund are themselves beneficiaries of it — a classic case of the fox guarding the hen house. This shocking and possibly illegal issue is currently being challenged in court by a local attorney, Daniel Re. It behooves us as taxpayers to speak up and support efforts by Re and other concerned citizens to quickly change the out-of-control PERS into something equitable for all.

Mike Mitchell

Redmond