LV Chamber: State should limit worker benefits

By Stephanie Tavares

Friday, Jan. 30, 2009 | 2 a.m.

The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce is lobbying for reform of state programs and fiscal policies.

Most of the reforms involve shrinking, constricting or limiting wages and benefits for state employees.

The chamber’s recommendations are based on reports commissioned from Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis and Guy Hobbs of Hobbs, Ong & Associates to help determine where taxpayer dollars are being spent and to provide a factual foundation from which the chamber can make informed public policy recommendations.

The chamber announced its top five reform priorities for 2009 at a news conference Jan. 26. “The chamber looks forward to working with the governor, the Legislature and other community partners to pass these reforms,” Chamber Government Affairs Committee Chairman Hugh Anderson said in a statement. “These priorities for reform will bring about significant needed change.”

The chamber’s top priority is changing the Public Employees’ Retirement System for new public employees.

The chamber would like to see the Legislature redefine “compensation,” increase the number of years used to calculate final average salary, cap annual increases, lower the benefit factor, increase the number of years an employee must work to receive the full benefit, establish a minimum age for retirement benefit collection, and restrict benefit enhancements until the plan has no unfunded liability.

The chamber’s next priority is to shrink the Public Employees’ Benefits Program by eliminating the retiree health care subsidy for all new employees, reducing the retiree health care cost for all current employees, and eliminating the retiree health care subsidy for all current employees when they become eligible for Medicare.

The third priority is bringing local and state government employees’ wages more in line with those of the private sector. To do so, the chamber wants the Legislature to bring transparency to the collective bargaining process, but did not specify what that might entail. It also wants to see unspecified changes in the arbitration process.

The chamber’s fourth priority is for the Legislature to create a rainy-day fund for K-12 education to protect school funding in economic downturns. The chamber would like to see it funded by reversions that now go to the state’s General Fund.

The final top priority is modification of the existing Budget Stabilization Fund. The chamber would like to see the Legislature strengthen the fund to mitigate any effect the economy may have on the General Fund and the operation of state government.

The chamber would like it to be more difficult to start programs and services during surplus years without first putting a larger portion of any surpluses into a stabilization fund.

For more information on the chamber’s position on these issues and for copies of the reports from which the chamber based its priorities, log on to www.lvchamber.com.