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Kasich finalizes pension reform
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Gov. John Kasich finalized long-discussed and debated pension reform Wednesday, adding his signature to five separate bills that were years in the making.
It took the governor about seven minutes and 51 pens to complete the task, and the final products drew praise from the public employee groups represented and the Republican and Democratic lawmakers who managed near-unanimous support for the legislation.
“You wouldn’t want to get to retirement, period, and then find out you don’t have anything,” Kasich said. “... This represents significant progress in terms of stabilizing the system.”
He added, “This is good. This is like one of the best days that Ohioans can feel. ... It really is the best of what we’d like to see in terms of the way that the Legislature can work.”
The bills will affect retirees of the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund, the School Employees Retirement System, the State Teachers Retirement System, the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and the Highway Patrol Retirement System.
While details vary from system to system, the bills include a number of changes to eligibility, cost-of-living increases and other retirement benefits in a way that generally allows those closer to retirement to be covered under existing guidelines and those farther away receiving potentially reduced benefits.
Some changes include adding years of service required for retirement benefits, increasing the number of years used to determine final average salaries and potentially lowering cost of living adjustments.