Brian Corvese

I am writing in regards to the MERS Police & Fire pensions. Due to the 2012 Pension Reforms, first responders now have to work longer careers to satisfy the minimal pension requirements for retirement. People who could have retired, can not retire, and now are creating liability for the departments to being health and safety risks (i.e. a police officer/firefighter being 65yoa or older).

I would like to propose the following for considerations:

-Eliminate the age requirement of 50 Years old, or 27 1/2 years of service to satisfy retirement requirement

-Eliminate the early retirement penalties, allowing employees to retire at 20 years of service at whatever accrual rate they earned. I.E. 2% per year at 20 years of service = 40% retirement benefit

-Reduce the final averaging compensation period from (5) years to (3) years.

-Allow retirees from a state pension plan the ability to obtain another state job, with the ability to invest in a 401K plan instead of a pension

These mere changes could also increase the issues with hiring and retention, as it would make the first responder jobs more enticing. Furthermore, it would also help the system revolve more with new bodies coming in, people leaving, and people getting a slightly better retirement. There would be many added benefits with little to no increase in costs.

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