The Washington state Legislature failed to adopt a bill that would have recaptured a $1 billion surplus from the $5.2 billion Law Enforcement Officers’ and Fire Fighters’ Retirement Plan 1, Tumwater. Earlier this week, retired police officers and firefighters challenged the bill, which would have moved 76% of the surplus into state coffers, in court.
The bill, which would have shut down the existing plan and created a new mirror plan, may be resurrected in a future legislative session, said Wolfgang Opitz, deputy director of the state’s office of financial management. "The efforts to reconstitute the pension plan were a result of employer contribution rates that were too high and a result of (higher than expected) investment returns.”
Separately, the Washington legislature adopted a bill that reduced employer and employee contribution rates to a host of state pension plans, while upping the investment return assumption to 8% from 7.5%, saving the state roughly $200 million in contributions.
