PERS Help Update
 RE: February 18, 2005 PERS Board meeting

 Good News:

• The PERS Board had initially declared Tier One Regular Accounts frozen for 4 to 5 years beginning January 1, 2003. The PERS Board has now signaled for the past two months their intention of paying 8% interest to Tier One Regular Account members for 2004. (If you use the PERS online Benefit Estimate Calculator, your estimate will now include the 8% earnings for Tier One Regular Account members for 2004.)

Not So Good News:

• The PERS Board has also said employer rates are moving up. Due to the substantial rate increase of 9 percentage points, half would be phased in July 1 of this year and half two years from now. The rate increases would be dramatically higher had PERS considered the interest payments on billions of dollars of recently issued PERS bonds.
   
• The Oregon Investment Council has also reported $1 Billion in losses year-to-date on PERS investments.
   
• Taxing out-of-state residents: The PERS board has openly discussed this issue at several of the recent board meetings. Senate Bill 497 has been introduced to assess Oregon State Income Tax on retired PERS members’ monthly benefits if they move out-of-state or have an out-of-state bank address.

If you would like to discuss how these changes affect you directly, please let me know.

Take care, 

Jesse Villarreal, Jr.
Founder – PERS Help

PERS Help © 2004 All rights reserved.
 Last Revised: May 14, 2006