Vermont Republican state Sen. Bill Doyle plans to introduce legislation next week to strip the $88 million Vermont Municipal Employees' Retirement System from the treasurer's books and transfer it to another authority.
The main reason? To distance the 116% funded system from the state Legislature so politicians can't use the assets to balance the state budget. In fiscal years 1995 and 1996, the Legislature took about $13,000 from the municipal system to balance the state budget.
State Treasurer Jim Douglas, who supports the legislation, said the state makes no contribution to the system, and while it is only about 5% of the state's pension assets, it takes more than 5% of the treasury staff's time to oversee the fund.
No specific authority has been named in the legislation, because the state plans to bid out the job, Mr. Douglas said.
