Gov. John Kitzhaber exercised both his considerable political skills and his equally considerable political muscle this fall to push the so-called grand bargain through a special session of the Oregon Legislature. Whether it holds depends upon the state supreme court, a body over which Kitzhaber has no control.

The legislative bargain contained five elements:

• Public Employees Retirement System cost-of-living increases, already trimmed in the regular 2013 legislative session, will be cut further.

• A combination of tax increases on some businesses and cigarettes, cuts on other businesses and cuts in deductions for seniors and exemptions for high-end taxpayers will increase state revenues by an estimated $244 million this biennium.

• Schools will get about $200 million in additional funds.

• Local governments will be barred from regulating genetically engineered plants.

• PERS benefits will be calculated in a slightly different fashion and future lawmakers no longer will be part of the retirement system.

Kitzhaber made clear both before and during the session earlier this month that if any one of the five elements failed to gain legislative approval, he would veto the whole package. It was a promise he did not have to keep.

Yet if he is to keep faith with voters who saw the PERS reforms as critical, he shouldn’t assume he is off the hook just yet.

Public employee unions are challenging both this PERS reform and the earlier one before the state supreme court. It argues that the cuts amount to breaking promises public employers made to their workers in years past. Reform supporters believe the changes will be allowed to stand.

Kitzhaber has, it seems to us, an obligation to Oregonians should the cuts be overturned. He must work with lawmakers to undo all remaining elements of the bargain — just as he earlier promised to veto them.

Kitzhaber has said that the current package ends his involvement with PERS changes. Yet if the reforms are overturned, his grand bargain is neither grand nor a bargain. Instead, it becomes a straightforward grab for money that rightfully belongs to the men, women and businesses that earned it.