WSSRA Executive Director, Dr. Alan Burke, Visits BFSRA

Dr. Alan Burke
Executive Director
WSSRA
2017-2018

We were honored to have newly hired WSSRA Executive Director, Dr. Alan Burke, with us at this our first luncheon of the year.  Dr. Burke started as a middle school teacher/administrator.  Since those days he served as the Superintendent of Yelm S.D.; a deputy director to O.S.P.I in Olympia (where he learned the in's and out's of Olympia politics); he was the director for WSSDA for 2 years; and last year tried retirement - until he saw the opening by WSSRA looking for a replacement for Dr. Mike Boring.

He shared with those attending the most recent information regarding the present state of flux in Olympia with our pensions and health coverage. Dr. Burke's experiences in education and in the state legislative milieu will serve us well as we enter into these post-McCleary years with the legislature and our issues. Stay tuned as there is more to come as we enter this period of "pension recovery" slated for the upcoming year.

A few things to consider:

PERS 1 & TERS 1 Plans:  Created in 1933.  Life expectancy was 67.  "Today we are just getting started at 67," Dr. Burke.

Current funding shortfalls:  The PERS 1 and TRS 1 pensions accounts were caused by insufficient payments by the Legislature. In the period between 2001 and 2011, the Legislature paid only 58.7% of the employer retirement contributions. Employees paid 100% of their required retirement contribution.

TRS 1 & Pers 1 Pension Recovery:  Retirees have not had a Cost of Living Adjustment since 2010 and have lost over 12% of their purchasing power due to inflation.  Restoring a Plan 1 COLA will help restore some of that purchasing power.

Plan 1 UCOLA: was created in 1995 to account for increasing longevity and the need for pension recovery. It combined several older annual and discretionary COLAs for Plan 1.

Plan 1 UCOLA:  eliminated in 2011. It was not replaced with an alternative to account for increased longevity.

TRS 1 & PERS 1 Minimum COLA Benefit Levels:  Both do continue to qualify some retirees for an annual COLA. Roughly 10% of Plan 1 retirees qualify for minimum benefits. Unfortunately, the minimum benefit levels are not high enough keep Plan 1 retirees from falling on state Medicaid services.

Medicare Supplemental Insurance Plans:  Unusually high monthly increases, $55 for Univorm Medical (2018) and $40 for Kaiser Health (2017), are compounding the damage to the oldest retirees. An increase to the Medicare Eligible Benefit to $205 is needed just to mitigate current premium increases.

Restore Retiree Healthcare Benefits: The Legislature lowered the Medicare Healthcare Benefit from $183 to $150 in 2011.  Uniform Medical premiums have skyrocketed $55 per month in the past year. Increasing the Medical Benefit to $205 per month will restore the cut and mitigate the loss of purchasing power from increasing healthcare premiums.

Maintain the PERS 2 & TRS 2 retirement plans for future school employees:  The current pension plans are popular with employees and are also well funded.  Making Plans 2 the default plan would provide better benefits for employees and decrease pension expenses for the state.

Make the actuarially recommended payment to the state pension funds:  TRS 1 & PERS 1 are underfunded due to past skipped payments by the State. Making the recommended payment will get Plan 1 funding back on track.