Most of you should have received a copy of the Spring 2010 Retirement Outlook from DRS. While there was not much in the way of significant information, there were a couple of articles worthy of review. Foremost is the lead article about marital status. It is important to remember that if you marry or remarry after retirement you may be able to change your benefit option to provide for your new spouse. Most of the calculations I have seen for this benefit make it a better deal than buying life insurance.

In the column dealing with pension plan facts, they ask the question that many of you have expressed.

Is my retirement benefit safe, given the investment losses of last year?

The answer is yes. 

For a more detailed explanation, take a look at the new articles on the site.  We thought that concern over the 22% drop in 2009 we should do a more in-depth review.

The Legislature is in session.  Fortunately it is a short session with the primary focus on trying to produce a balance budget.  Thus far not much has happend in this session relative to the LEOFF 1 Pension Plan.  Currently there are only two bills, HB 2519 and SB 6078, that have any impact on LEOFF 1.  The Senate bill is a hold over from the last session. 

The LEOFF 2 Retirement Board propsed the House bill.  It deals with line of duty death payments and impacts active members.  However disability retired LEOFF 1 members would be entitled free tuition for their dependent children under this bill.  This bill, as well, would impact very few LEOFF 1 retirees.

We have posted articles on the site with full details.

Recently we have been informed that members of the RSPOA are continuing to recieve notices and donation requests from the LEOFF 1 Coalition.  These mailings have been made to RSPOA members even though the RSPOA withdrew the permisssion to use their mailing list when they withdrew from the Coalition.  It is unfortunate that that organization continues to violate the privacy rights of these individuals.  

We continue to assert that we do not think anyone should send any money to the Coalition.  They need to first demonstrate the need and explain what they have done with the money we have already sent.  Then they need to explain what they intend to do with the money they have and the new money they are seeking.  That means a transparent financial review.  See our earlier article on this issue.

It was great to see an article by Dave Peery detailing his view of the health of the LEOFF 1 pension.  He and some others made a trip to Olympia in December where they met with a Legislative staffer who produced a single page out of a 100 page report that explained it all.  Unfortunately Dave did not provide us with a copy of the page or the name of the report.

It does not matter, however, because the information is not new.  In fact, we published that information on LEOFF1.Net back in September.  See the article. 

What is important is that the Coalition is starting to make an effort to be more communicative.  Dave's article was a good report even with the sparcity of detail.  This is much better stuff than just linking to a bunch of articles on the the State's TVW website.  My kudos Dave for making a better effort.