LASERS leaders call Jindal retirement plan unfair

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed changes to benefits for state workers are unconstitutional, unnecessarily harsh and unfair to employees vested in the system, state employee retirement system leaders said today. Cindy Rougeou, executive director of the Louisiana State Employees Retirement System, says Jindal is targeting workers who are barred from lobbying on their own behalf and those least able to speak up in opposition. In a three-page written response to the governor’s proposals, Rougeou says the changes would break a promise made to employees when they were hired about the benefits they would receive. “Many of those employees already have ‘vested’ rights in their retirement benefits. To change provisions such as those targeted would violate the constitutional restriction against impairing existing benefits,” Rougeou wrote. Jindal is proposing a package of pension changes that would shrink retirement benefits for thousands of current state workers, boost their costs and push back the age for collecting benefits. Lawmakers will consider the ideas in the regular session that begins March 12. The governor says the changes will help Louisiana rein in the costs of its retirement programs, which are $18.5 billion short of the money needed to cover benefits. Read the full story here.