Government Employees Retirement System board members raised employee contribution rates by 1 percent Thursday, and said that beginning on Tuesday, the government’s “employer” portion will also be going up by 3 percent.
And because board members said they are allowed by law to raise rates on each side by 3 percent within a five-year period, they also voted to increase the employee contributions by 1 percent three years in a row.
The rationale, they said, was that they were promised a year ago by the governor and Senate that an increase in contribution rates would be included in the Fiscal Year 2013 budget – but no recommendations for an increase have come down from either side.
GERS has submitted its proposal, but the governor was supposed to have convened a task force to consider it orto have made a counter proposal, and neither has happened, board members said.
“The only people that did anything was this board,” GERS board member Edgar Ross said. Ross led the discussion on contribution rate increases during Thursday’s board meeting on St. Thomas and there was little debate from other board members as he wrapped up.
The increase then went on to pass by unanimous vote.
Asked by GERS Administrator Austin Nibbs what the board will do if the government doesn’t honor the increase and set aside the money in future budgets, Ross said that GERS would just “have to do what we are legally bound to do.”
“It’s incumbent upon this board to send a message – and we will exercise our authority if nobody does anything about it,” Ross said. “Once we determined that the rates must be increased, we can’t wait for others to act, we must act.”
Board members said they had a meeting with the governor Thursday afternoon and would be explaining to him what they voted for and why.
Board members gave reporters a copy of a bill signed by the governor in June 2011 that appropriated $7 million to GERS as a contribution. Several board members said this contribution was never made, but the Source was not able to confirm that by press time.
Board members at Thursday’s meeting included Ross, Carol Callwood, Vincent Liger, Desmond Maynard, Raymond James, Leona Smith and Wilbur Callender.
