Walker touts pension reforms to Illinois business group Capital Times - Biz Beat:

JUNE 26, 2012 5:30 AM MIKE IVEY | THE CAPITAL TIMES | MIVEY@MADISON.COM

Fresh off a national report showing Wisconsin with the most solvent public pension fund in the nation, Gov. Scott Walker traveled to Illinois Monday to claim some of the credit. Walker addressed the Commercial Club of Chicago, the oldest civic organization in the city, on the topic of pension reform and fiscal responsibility. Walker made changes to the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) under the Act 10 budget repair bill, requiring covered public employees to contribute 5 percent of their salary to their retirement as well as about 12 percent of the cost of their health insurance premiums. Those contributions have in the past been covered by the employer, a benefit gained through collective bargaining over the years. Our reforms will only make Wisconsins pension system stronger by protecting current and future retiree benefits and keeping the state fiscally strong, said Walker in a statement prior to the Chicago visit. According to a new study from the Pew Center on the States, Wisconsins pension system is the only one in the nation 100 percent funded. The same study showed the Illinois pension system just 45 percent funded. The Pew study also noted Wisconsin is one of seven states to have retiree health benefit obligations 25 percent funded or higher. Illinois is only .1 percent funded for its retiree health obligations. Illinois leaders could learn from the hard, but necessary decisions we made in Wisconsin, Walker says. Because of our prudent decisions, state programs as well as our employers and taxpayers will not be under the imminent stress of increased taxes and/or cuts. Wisconsin is leading the nation forward to a more prosperous future. But Rep. Brett Hulsey, D-Madison, is taking issue with Walkers characterization of the issue, saying the Republican governor is trying to weaken the pension system on the backs of working people. Governor Walker bragging about the state retirement system is like an arsonist bragging about the new house they just set on fire, says Hulsey in a statement.

Hulsey refers to recent comments from WRS officials that Act 10 will have the unintended consequence of adding nearly $88 million in costs to the system. That issue was detailed last week in a Wisconsin State Journal story. Hulsey has also criticized the fairness of Act 10 since it hits lower income workers hardest. A non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo showed that a married public worker making $25,000 a year pays 15.8 percent of their salary for retirement and health benefits under the new law while a worker making $125,000 pays 6.7 percent. Meanwhile, a study ordered by Walker on potential changes to the WRS is due out June 30 and is being widely anticipated by the 540,000 participants in the system. As he has in the past, Walker said Monday at a post-speech news conference that he has no plans to make changes in the system, particularly for current retirees. But, he added, "That doesn't mean I wouldn't be open to them," according to a story in the Journal Sentinel Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, on Monday called for the study to get a wide public review, including a hearing before the Joint Committee on Retirement Systems on which he sits.