Gov. Steve Sisolak has signed into law a bill that will make it impossible for the public and even elected officials to act as a watchdogs and catch abuses in the taxpayer-funded Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS).
Senate Bill 224, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Julia Ratti, declares much of the information about state and local government retirees confidential. Only the names of pensioners and pension amounts would be public records. Such vital information as the last employer, years of service credit, the retirement date and whether the benefit is a disability or retirement benefit are all confidential.
The bill passed both the state Senate and Assembly largely along party lines, with only a handful of Democrats voting in opposition.
Ironically, when Democratic Gov. Sisolak was a Clark County commissioner, he used public records to expose abuse of county firefighter overtime pay and sick leave. According to the Las Vegas newspaper, Sisolak spearheaded reforms that resulted in an 80 percent drop in sick leave among fire department battalion chiefs.
Without the ability to analyze the information made secret by SB224 the public will not be able to tell whether government retirees are drawing excessive pensions.
PERS costs $2 billion a year and the taxpayers are on the hook for $40 billion in unfunded liabilities.
According to an analysis by American Enterprise Institute, the average Nevada public employee pension is $64,000 a year, the highest in the nation, while the average Social Security annual benefit is $16,000. Currently more than 1,500 Nevada public employee pensioners are drawing more than $100,000 a year.
The law that set up PERS states: “It is the policy of this State to provide, through the Public Employees’ Retirement System: A reasonable base income to qualified employees who have been employed by a public employer and whose earning capacity has been removed or has been substantially reduced by age or disability.”
Yet, in a court case seeking PERS records, Nevada Policy Research Institute’s (NPRI) attorney Joseph Becker observed that there are retirees in their 40’s collecting six-figure disbursements from PERS, while still earning income from other sources. “Only through the publication of name, pension payout and related data can the public better understand how the system works and the legislative purpose be effectuated,” Becker wrote.
During hearings on SB224, NPRI’s policy director, Robert Fellner, noted that a tip to California’s fraud hotline resulted in the system recovering more than $200,000, causing CalPERS to release a statement praising “the great value of the public’s assistance in CalPERS’ efforts to protect the state pension system from fraud, waste, and abuse.”
Fellner also noted the importance of disclosing whether PERS payments are for disability or retirement. A Los Angeles television station, using public records, discovered that a police officer who was drawing a disability pension from one city was working full-time as a police officer for another agency.
SB224’s backers argue revealing the names of pensioners might expose them to identity theft and fraud. The Nevada Supreme Court dismissed that claim in a 2013 ruling, saying, “Because PERS failed to present evidence to support its position that disclosure of the requested information would actually cause harm to retired employees or even increase the risk of harm, the record indicates that their concerns were merely hypothetical and speculative. Therefore, because the government’s interests in nondisclosure in this instance do not clearly outweigh the public’s presumed right to access, we conclude that the district court did not err in balancing the interests involved in favor of disclosure.”
Now, the secrecy is embedded in law and the public is blindered. — TM
maurice white says
Ironically Sisolak did not use any PERS information to root out corruption in Clark County. There is no need to know who a beneficiary is to “analyze” PERS performance. PERS is regularly rated best in class amongst its peers. Nobody needs to know address, phone numbers, family member names and a host of other intrusive information that RGJ and Fellner want. Just because a person is a public servant doesn’t mean they give up their privacy.
The average monthly payout (2018) for regular members is $2,860, and P/F is $5,236, not the felonious claim of $64,000 per year made by the American Enterprise Institute. AEI further wrongly reports the average SS benefit at $16,000 per year. The actual amount is $17,532 (2019). Keep in mind that PERS recipients DO NOT receive SS for the time they participated in PERS, so the actual average PERS payout, minus SS, is a mere $16,788. AEI obviously does not understand the laws that regulate PERS and they have a math problem.
Taxpayers are NOT on the hook for the so called unfunded liability. NRS286.260 and NRS286.6793 specifically protect the public from contributing any money to PERS for this mythical unfunded liability. The only money PERS can accept is contributions from employees and employers. PERIOD.
Depicting PERS as having grocery bags full of cash is akin to accusing them of being the mafia. Robert Fellner is an anti-public employee liar. He has been repeatedly informed of the actual operations and regulations imposed by law on PERS, yet he continues to compare Nevada PERS to Cal PERS. These two retirement systems are completely unrelated in all aspects. He also uses his own fictional formulas to manufacture poor numbers (results) that he uses to impugn the performance and character of PERS.
Maurice White
Carson City resident