Just a little work left on legislative language for OPERS. Also, ORSC staff may be ready to comment soon.

May 3, 2010

Ohio Retirement Study Council (ORSC) staff advise that the draft legislation is waiting for only one detail. OPERS needs to come to agreement with the Legislative Service Commission (LSC) on the exact legislative language regarding a particular disability provision. This doesn't sound ominous, just an attempt at precise drafting.

You may remember that the role that the non-profit LSC has played in this process has been to draft language that accurately reflects the intent of each of each system's proposal for pension modification. According to ORSC staff, OPERS is reportedly working with LSC to get the draft legislative language as accurate as possible before the draft bill is finalized for introduction to the Ohio General Assembly.

While it's certainly laudable to try to get legislation right as early as possible, it's also understandable that may Ohio public pension participants would like to know just how safe (or not) their financial futures are.

ORSC staff also report that their own analysis of the draft bill may now be presented before the legislation is introduced in the General Assembly. If this is the case, it mean that the first professional feedback on the actual legislative language will take place even before the proposed law is under consideration by our elected representatives. Since ORSC's mission is to keep the Governor's office, the Ohio House, and the Ohio Senate in touch with the reality of the five state pension systems, one could expect their knowledgeable commentary to enhance the evolution of the bill as it makes its way, revision by revision, through the legislative process.

If, indeed, it ever does. This isn't a stab at the time it has taken for the progress that has thus far been made. It's a reminder that, just because the bill eventually gets introduced in our legislature, there's nothing that says it ever has to be passed.