Florida Professional Firefighters Keep Pension Protected

http://www.iaff.org/13News/050113FRS.htm


I love this.....they follow the law when it suits them. Pricks!

Florida law mandates that actuarial studies be conducted before any changes to pension plans are considered. But before those studies were completed, HB 7011 supporters rushed the legislation through committee anyway.
The FPF asked why proper procedure was not followed, but state House members insisted that while the actuaries were a part of the “recipe for progress,” they were not going to wait to move the legislation forward.
May 1, 2013 – After lobbying hard throughout Florida’s entire 60-day annual legislative session, the Florida Professional Firefighters (FPF) emerged victorious in thwarting a plan to shift the state’s new hires to a defined contribution pension plan. The amendment to SB 1392 was defeated April 30 by a vote of 22-18 in the Senate, four days before the state legislature adjourns for the year.

“The FPF spent tireless hours at the state Capitol to ensure that no changes were made to the Florida Retirement System (FRS), and we prevailed,” says FPF President Gary Rainey. “Thanks to the research and resources provided by the IAFF and its Pension Department, we successfully lobbied our state leaders.”

Immediately after he was elected as House Speaker in November 2012, Representative Will Weatherford (R) announced that reforming the FRS was his top priority. Weatherford maintained that even though the system was funded at a healthy 86.9 percent, making contributions to the FRS was too much of a liability for the state to sustain long-term. In his opinion, moving to a defined contribution plan similar to a 401(k) would alleviate that financial burden.

At Speaker Weatherford’s encouragement, Representatives Jason Brodeur (R) and Steve Precourt (R) co-introduced HB 7011, which would have closed the retirement system to all new hires beginning in January 2014. Those employees would have been forced to join a defined contribution plan.

Florida law mandates that actuarial studies be conducted before any changes to pension plans are considered. But before those studies were completed, HB 7011 supporters rushed the legislation through committee anyway.

The FPF asked why proper procedure was not followed, but state House members insisted that while the actuaries were a part of the “recipe for progress,” they were not going to wait to move the legislation forward.

When HB 7011 came up for vote in the House, votes were cast along party lines and the bill passed.

Meanwhile, in the state Senate, Senator Wilton Simpson introduced SB 1392, a less detrimental pension reform bill that would have mandated that only senior management and elected officials be forced into the defined contribution plan. New hires would be given the option to join the FRS or the 401(K)-style plan.

Simpson promised the FPF – and the public -- he would not bend to harsher provisions called for in HB 7011. But, he bowed to political pressure and broke his promise April 29 by introducing a “strike-all” amendment, favoring the HB 7011 plan.

The move was met with strong opposition from Senator Jack Latvala (R), a longtime friend of the fire fighters. Latvala argued that the state’s government employees do not do their jobs for the salary, as most of them have not received a wage increase in six or seven years. He said that they do it for the pension and, without it, it would prove difficult to recruit and maintain quality employees.

As an example, Senator Latvala talked about Florida State Fire Service Association Local S-20 fire fighters Brett Fulton and Josh Burch, who were making about $26,000 a year each when they were killed in the line of duty in 2011 fighting a wildfire.

Latvala told the Tampa Bay Times, “That’s barely the federal poverty level. They worked for the pension. One fire fighter’s family was able to collect the survivor’s benefit, and his family now collects $1,200 a month.” The senator also said that the amount was not enough to support the family the fire fighter left behind, and to take away those benefits for future employees would be devastating.

“Even if Brothers Fulton and Burch had invested in all the right stocks and contributed the maximum allowable amount, it still would not come close to equaling the FRS benefit,” says Rainey.

The senator’s opposition to the bill carried a lot of weight with the other seven other Senate republicans – Charlie Dean, Nancy Detert, Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, Greg Evers, Antiere Flores, Denise Grimsley and John Legg – who also publically expressed their opposition to the pension reform.

When the legislation went to the Senate floor for a vote, Senate President Don Gaetz (R) made a promise to Senator Latvala that once the vote was made on the amendment to SB 1392, the Senate would move on to other business and the pension issue would not come back up again this year.

“We really appreciate Senator Latvala’s assistance in getting the bipartisan support needed to defeat this legislation,” says Rainey.

The issue is dead for this year, but Speaker Weatherford has already pledged to bring it up again in the 2014 session. “If he does, we’ll be ready,” says Rainey.



FD Bro'