Today, the 26th day of the 60-day session, was the cut-off date for policy committees in the Senate. February 9th is the cut-off date for fiscal bills in both the House and Senate. The highlight of this week was on February 3rd when the state Senate and House ran floor resolutions honoring our fallen officers.

The Court has finally acted on the motion for reasonable attorney’s fees in the matter of Swisher v. City of Moses Lake. The Judge has advised Joe Fischnaller that he has granted the motion and awarded $6,425.00 in attorney’s fees against the City of Moses Lake.

See the full story with an update as of 2/5/2010

The third week of the legislative session has been completed. The cut-off date for bills to pass out of policy committees is February 2nd.  WACOPS reports that they are hopeful that all of their 2010 legislative priorities to be voted out of House Committees prior to that deadline.

View the list of pending legislation.  Most of these bills deal with law enforcement issues or LEOFF 2 pension items, but it is an interesting read.

Once bills pass out of policy committees they go to the Rules Committee which is chaired by the Speaker of the House. This committee decides which bills will go to the floor of the House to receive a vote from the full body. WACOPS reports that they have briefed members of this committee about the legislation.

February 3rd will be Law Enforcement Day in Olympia. Both the Senate and the House will be running resolutions honoring fallen officers.  This will be broadcast on TVW and you can check with www.tvw.org for local station and airing times.

The Legislature is in session.  Thus far we know of only two bills that impact LEOFF 1.  While they provide significant improvements for a few they have no impact on the overall pension.  Neither of these bills will affect many LEOFF 1 members.

HB 2519 LEOFF I & II State Patrol
Included is a LEOFF I amendment to increase duty death as a result of an occupational injury or illness from $150,000 to $214,000 and add an escalator. Also adds for LEOFF I a surviving spouse to the eligibility list for free college tuition.

SB 6078 LEOFF I Amendment
Allows a spouse of a member who is killed in the line of duty, with more than 25 years of service credit to select a 50% disability pension or a service pension of 2% for each year of service credit.  Example: 31 years of service credit equals a 62% pension.

Read the full story for more information on these bills.

This article is from an exchange of emails between Ron Larson, a member of the RFFOW, and Jerry Taylor of LEOFF1.Net.  We had not published it before, but since it appears in the January 2010 RFFOW newsletter, we have decided to provide it here to help clarify what Dick Warbrouck is addressing in his article.

Matt Smith, the State Actuary, and others are interviewed on "The Capitol Record".  This is a public affairs program on TVW.  Matt discusses pension funding issue.  Please watch this carefully.  You will note that the emphasis here is on PERS 1 and TRS 1, not LEOFF 1.  We met with Matt earlier this year when he was developing and presenting this information.  You will find a full report on his review of the LEOFF 1 pension funding status on the the site.  Click here to view that article.

Follow the full story link to view the video presentation.  Note that the section of the interview dealing with pension issues runs about 15 minutes.

A message from Brian Wurts, President, Lakewood Police Independent Guild.

As usual they got most of it wrong. Below is what I just put out to my members and the media outside of the full press release at www.lpig.us. As I clicked on non guild member names that have been in my contacts I passed over Mark, Tina, Ronnie, and Greg. I cannot stop breaking down here alone in my office. For any of you who have contacts willing to donate to the familes our website is set up for online donations. I want to put these little ones through college. God Bless the LPD right now.
 
(Note: LEOFF1.Net is not doing a complete report on these horrific murders.  They have been well covered in the press.  This is more than an attack on the officers, it is also an attack on society itself.  Our comments relative to the recent murder of Officer Tim Brenton in Seattle apply here as well.)

NASRA Releases Results from National Survey of Public Pension

Public pension funding levels have declined according to this year’s Public Fund Survey, an annual overview of public pension plan financing, membership and design. This year's summary is the first following the sharp drop in global investment markets that occurred in 2008. The survey is an online compendium of key characteristics of the nation's largest public retirement systems and is sponsored by the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA) and the National Council on Teacher Retirement.

According to the report, the 2008 fall in pension asset values has caused aggregate public pension funding levels to move downward from 86.7 percent in FY 2007 to 85.3 percent in FY 2008. Because public pension actuarial methods are designed to temper the effect of market volatility, public pensions will recognize the investment losses incurred in 2008 over several years. During this recognition period, funding levels are expected to decline, although losses may be partially offset with investment gains.

The author anticipates that future funding levels will also be influenced to the extent sponsoring state and local governments consider adjustments to benefit levels and financing arrangements, such as reduced benefits for future hires, reduced future accruals, and/or higher contributions for both employers and employees.

View the entire report by clicking here.

A lot of folks have seen doom and gloom in the recession we just past through.  I thought it was important to get a historical perspective on this issue.  We have had worse times that the last recession.  We may have more.  But the bottom line is how things have done in the long term.  The table in this article shows the historical rate of return on pension investments.

As a part of calculating the medical benefit liabilities for the LEOFF 1 plan, the State Actuary has produce this table showing the project payments year by year. Remember, these payments are made by the employer, not from the LEOFF 1 pension trust.

This article shows those projections and discusses the funding options available to the cities and counties.