At the half way mark, the 2012 Legislative Session brought some familiar threats to local government employees and even added a few new ones. 

Senate Bill 6543  

Sponsored by:  Tom (D), Baumgartner (R), Kastama (D), Holmquist-Newbry (R), Sheldon (D), Schoesler (R) and Hewitt (R).

This short sided measure would unfairly exclude overtime payments from being included in your pension formula.  The back story to this bill stems from a high ranking State Patrol employee who worked a ridiculously high amount of overtime just prior to his retirement in an attempt to artificially “balloon" his pension.  Even though this person is under investigation for fraud, this knee jerk reaction would unfairly hurt hourly workers who regularly work overtime.  It also would protect administrative employees who simply roll their overtime into their regular salary.  This means most management could still have their “overtime” counted while their employees take a hit to their pension.

HB 2441  

Sponsored by:  Bailey (R), Alexander (D)

This is a more reasoned response to the overtime ballooning issue.  Basically it would simply identify very high amounts of overtime and generate a bill for the employer to pay if it costs the retirement system extra money. 

Senate Bill 6378

Sponsored by:  Zarelli (R), Baumgartner (R), Parlette (R), Hill (R) and Tom (D).

 By far the worst pension bill to date!  It does 3 bad things:

1)   It forces all new hires into Plan 3.