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Aug. 12, 2008 – Senator Louis Patrick Hill challenged statements made Friday by GERS Administrator Austin Nibbs as inaccurate when Nibbs stated that the single most detrimental feature of the current GERS plan that handicaps growth in the Retirement Fund is the fact that employer contributions are determined by the Legislature.
"I drafted ACT 6794 and saw it signed into law in December of 2005, enacting reforms to the Government Employee Retirement System which specifically and unequivocally state that the BOARD of the Retirement System may determine the rate of contribution for members and employers of the system." Hill went on to say that the law was also changed to forbid increased benefits without a specific funding source, another reform that Administrator Nibbs seemed to have missed based on his testimony before the Committee on Finance Friday. "The failure of the GERS board and GERS administration to follow the law is an outrage," stated Senator Hill. "For the Administrator to then mislead the public and blame the Legislature for their own inaction is unbelievable. Put the blame squarely where it is due and not on the Legislature who performed their duties and changed the very law Mr. Nibbs is incorrectly citing. The intent of ACT 6794 is to stop the bleeding from 22 years of unfunded mandates that requires the selling off of GERS assets every single year just to meet the payment of retirement benefits."
Senator Hill went on to say that the very words the GERS Administrator used when he stated that the System could not survive another 10 years were the exact words used by former Administrator Willis Todman and the late GERS Attorney Alfonso Nibbs in their 2005 hearing before the Legislature. Hill concluded by stating that poor management of the system and refusal to enforce the law is to blame for the possible collapse of the Employees Retirement System."
