CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — House and Senate negotiators hope to resolve their differences on competing plans to reform New Hampshire's public pension system by the end of the month, at the same time the state's retirement system is experiencing a big increase in applications from retirement-eligible employees.
Employees are telling the retirement system staff that "uncertainty involving pension legislation is what's leading them to apply for retirement," Kim France, the retirement system's executive director, said Monday. "We're also hearing that members and retirees are concerned the retirement system will become bankrupt if immediate changes aren't made. That is not true. The retirement system is solvent and will continue to pay benefits."
France said 500 workers have filed applications to retire on June 1. She said if everyone who filed an application actually retired, that would represent a 455 percent increase over June 2010 retirements.
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The retirement system has about 50,500 active members and 26,000 pension recipients.
Negotiators met for the first time Monday to go over plans adopted by each chamber. They discussed about a dozen points over which there are differences and plan to continue meeting Thursday and Friday.
Both the House and Senate propose plans that would increase the cost of pensions for firefighters, police, and state and municipal workers. The plans are intended to spare property taxpayers the rising costs of funding the pension system.
Under the current law, employees in one group, such as teachers, would be able to retire at age 60 with no minimum service requirement. The Senate version would keep the law the same; the House version would raise that age to 65, with some exceptions. Firefighters and police would be able to retire at age 45 under the current law, with 20 years of service. The Senate and House plans would raise the age to 50 and the number of years to 25.
The House version includes a five-year review of retirement age qualifications.
Committee member Neal Kurk, a Republican House member from Weare, said that when Social Security was created in 1938 and age 65 was the retirement age, life expectancy was age 64. One of the reason the federal program has had problems is that people are living longer and the amount going into Social Security doesn't go far enough, he said.
"We have the same problem with our system in New Hampshire," Kurk said. "We need to take some action."
Both plans have some differences on employees who return to work. The House plan says employers may only hire retired workers on a part-time basis. The Senate version doesn't have a part-time requirement. It prohibits a retired worker receiving benefits from returning to work within six months.
Opponents say both plans favor employers over employees. For example, they both would increase employee contributions.
Negotiators said they want to get legislators to vote on a compromise by June 2. Because the New Hampshire Retirement System says it would need six months to implement changes to the pension system, the goal is to have a plan that the Legislature and Gov. John Lynch can agree on by July 1.
The state retirement system says it will need a Jan. 1, 2012, implementation date for the benefit changes.
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