Oregon’s major business groups want lawmakers to start dealing with rising public pension costs as early as the session that opens Feb. 1.
Although those costs start to kick in with the 2017-19 budget cycle — 18 months away — advocates say it’s not too early to whittle down an unfunded liability projected at $18 billion over the next few decades.
“If we do nothing, 100 percent of the burden falls on taxpayers, government services and their ability to undertake reinvestment in budgets going forward,” says Tim Nesbitt, currently a consultant for the Oregon Business Plan.
Nesbitt is a former president of the Oregon AFL-CIO labor federation and an adviser to two governors.
Nesbitt also says that public employees themselves will be hurt by a system that diverts dollars from government services into ever-higher pension contributions.