The Oregon Supreme Court rebuffed a challenge to the state's 2019 pension reform legislative changes.
Participants in Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, Tigard, challenged amendments to the state's Public Employee Retirement System law that redirects DC plan contributions to a new pension stability account created to help fund the $73.7 billion public pension plan.
They also opposed another amendment that imposes a cap on the salary used to calculate participants' benefits.
Petitioners unsuccessfully argued that the amendments were unconstitutional because they violated contract language that prohibits the taking benefits without compensating plan participants for them.
The court in its Aug. 6 decision said that the amendments were not unconstitutional because they didn't apply retroactively and the pre-amendment statutes did not include a promise that the retirement benefits would not be changed in the future.
In a written statement, OPERS Director Kevin Olineck said that pension officials will continue to administer and implement all aspects of the amended law.
