An alternative proposal to Rhode Island’s nationally-recognized and highly controversial pension reforms of 2011 may soon be made public, according to Scott MacKay of RIPR, who reports that the mediator between organized labor and the executive branch will hold a press conference on Wednesday to update the rest of the state.
“This development suggests a settlement has been struck in the dispute,” writes MacKay.
And that suggests that pension politics are about to suck all or most of the political oxygen out of the Ocean State again.
And no special session this time around, legislators could be considering a new set of pension reforms as they mull all other potential new legislation.
A settlement proposal now would also potentially set the stage in the campaign for governor – with one Democrat, Angel Taveras, who started at the negotiating table when approaching pension cuts and another, Gina Raimondo, whose claim to fame to shepherding cuts through the General Assembly that labor had vowed to fight in court.
The three most-egregious aspects of the reforms for organized labor was the length of the COLA suspension, the increase in the retirement age for first responders and the percent of pension that was moved from a defined benefit to a defined contribution-type plan.
Let us know in the comments what you think – if anything – a compromise proposal should look like.