Which OR Legislative Republicans Might Sell Their Vote For A Big PERS Pension?

Stopping Oregon legislators from selling their vote to get on the PERS gravy train begins with public awareness.

The recent abuse of PERS pension spiking by legislators illustrated by the appointment of Senate Republican leader Ted Ferrioli to a $119,000 year position by Democrat Gov Kate Brown leads one to ask the question, which Republican legislator will be tempted to sell their vote for a big fat PERS pension?

PERS pension spiking can only occur if a legislator is enrolled in PERS and has been serving for a long time. Since Republicans are likely to remain in the minority because of their incompetent or conflicted leadership, the perfect storm occurs that provides the opportunity for discouraged or corrupt Republican legislators to sell their votes on big wedge issues (like Ferrioli did on the unnecessary and big health care tax increase) in exchange for a big PERS pension.

OCWF obtained the list of legislators that are enrolled in PERS from the PERS board by a Public Records Request and we are providing that document for your reading enjoyment. (Note: legislators not enrolled in PERS may be enrolled in the state's 401K plan, OSGP. Remember, legislators pay nothing into their PERS, but do contribute into their OSGP account. If there is an X next to their name then they hadn't made a decision about enrolling in PERS/OSGP at the time we obtained this document.)

You should take a moment and look for the names of your legislators and look up their biographies on their state website or on Wikipedia to see how long they have been serving.

Term limits anyone?

Newly minted state Rep Ron Noble, a principled Republican conservative, is introducing legislation to solve this problem by removing legislators and judges from PERS as noted by the is Eugene Register Guard editorial.

Will it totally solve the problem? Perhaps it might moving forward as the Bend Bulletin points out, but not immediately. However, it will go a long way to restoring the public's confidence that their legislators are not making decisions that affect their lives based on personal conflicts of interest.