June 12, 2009
(Boston) – Senator Cynthia Stone Creem (D-Newton) strongly supports the bill enacted by the legislature on June 10 to reform the State’s pension laws.  The bill adheres closely to the Senate version, and makes the reforms applicable to current employees and elected public officials.  Several measures put forth earlier in separate bills by Senator Creem have been incorporated, including the elimination of  ‘enhanced’ pension benefits for officials who are not re-elected.

“I believe this is a major step toward reforming the state pension system to promote equity and close loopholes,” said Senator Creem.  “We will continue to discuss ways to safeguard the state and local public pension systems, to provide a fair and sustainable benefit for retired workers while preventing individual abuses.”

In addition, Senator Creem has two bills which will be considered by the Commission on Pension Reform, due to make further recommendations by this fall.  Her proposals would cap benefits to ensure that pensions are in proportion to what a worker pays into the system, and would prevent retirees, in most cases, from collecting a pension before age 55.

Major changes in the pension reform bill include: removal of  the “one day, one year” provision, whereby elected officials could claim a full year of creditable service after working one day in a calendar year; defining compensation to exclude housing allowances, motor vehicles and travel from pension calculations; elimination of pension credit for state and local officials serving in unpaid positions or positions earning less than $5000 annually; reform of the current accidental disability retirement benefit for those in temporary supervisory roles; removal of enhanced pension benefits for certain officials who are not re-elected; and, extension of the “vesting” requirement for elected officials from 6 to 10 years. The bill must now be signed into law by the Governor.