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PERS Board pondering changes to cost of living increases, other recommendations for Legislature

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2 years ago

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The board that governs the massive Public Employees Retirement System is working to develop recommendations for the Legislature to consider in 2024 in an effort to ensure the long-term financial viability of the pension plan.

PERS will provide or already is providing a pension to about 10% of the state’s population — people who worked or are working for local or state government entities.

For new hires, those legislative recommendations could include:

  • No longer guaranteeing the annual 3% cost of living increase. Under a new system, the increase could be contingent on whether the system can afford to pay the cost of living increase any particular year and tied to the consumer price index, meaning it might be lower some years than the 3% increase.
  • Creating a hybrid system where some of the benefits — a lower amount than under the current system — would be guaranteed while others would be provided through some type of investment portfolio.
  • Lowering the amount of the benefits.

Such recommendations, which would have to be approved by the Legislature to be enacted, would not impact current employees. Instead, the changes would be for future employees. The Legislature would establish when the changes would go into effect for new hires.

Another recommendation could be a change to the payout method for the cost of living increase for both current and future employees.

Under the current system, many people take the annual 3% cost of living increase as one lump sum payment at the end of the year. PERS could recommend the increase be provided to retirees as part of their monthly retirement checks. Another option would be to make the “default” choice for retirees to receive the cost of living increase divvied up as part of their retirement checks. The employees would have to request specifically for the cost of living increase to be paid as a 13th check instead of monthly.

Changing the payout method from a lump sum to monthly one for the annual 3% cost of living increases would not result in less money for retirees. But it would give more flexibility since the system would not be taxed with paying the entire total at one time at the end of the year.

“These are recommendations and still a work in progress,” Ray Higgins, PERS executive director, said during a recent interview with Mississippi Today. “PERS is such a great system. It is important we work together to find solutions for generations to come.”

During an at times contentious 2023 session between legislative leaders and PERS, Higgins committed to providing recommendations to lawmakers on steps they could take to improve the financial viability of the system.

The contentiousness surfaced because before the 2023 session began, the PERS governing board voted by a 7-3 margin in December 2022 to increase the rate paid by state agencies, school districts and local governments from 17.4% of employees’ paycheck to 22.4%. The decision caused consternation with legislators and local governmental entities because of the additional cost of the rate increase.

The decision to increase the amount paid by governmental entities to support the pension program rests solely with the board and not with the Legislature or any other entity. But in the 2023 session, House leaders introduced a bill to strip some of the authority of the board that oversees the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System.

After that bill was introduced, the board through Higgins committed to postponing the increase in the employer contribution rate and to introduce a long-term PERS fix for the Legislature to consider.

The PERS Board is working on those recommendations now and Higgins said he believes they will be finalized later this year before the 2024 session begins in January.

The effect of those recommendations, though, would be “long term in nature” and “does not alleviate the need for the increase in the employee contribution rate.”

As it stands now, that increase from 17.4% to 22.4% of an employee’s retirement check paid by the governmental entity is set to go into effect July 2024. The board’s original plan was to enact the increase in October of this year, meaning local government entities would be hit with an additional major expense during the midst of an election year.

The action of the board to increase the rate by 5% will cost state and local governmental entities, including school districts and public colleges and universities, $345 million annually, including $265 million for state agencies and education entities.

Higgins said the PERS Board of Directors could opt to phase in the that increase instead of enacting it all in July 2024.

The system’s current funding ratio is about 61%, meaning it has the assets to pay the benefits of 61% of all the people in the system, ranging from the newest hires to those already retired. Of course, all of the people in the system will not retire at once. Theoretically, though, it is recommended that retirement systems have a funding ratio of 80% or more.

The system has $30 billion in assets and is underfunded by about $20 billion.

Most state, city and county employees and public educators are in the system that currently has about 325,000 members, including current employees, retirees and others who used to work in the public sector but no longer do.

Employees in the system pay 9% of their salary toward their retirement. It was increased from 7.25% in the late 2000s. The average yearly benefit from the plan is $26,258.

Part of the issue causing the system financial woes is a decline in the number of governmental workers.

A study by the Mississippi Legislative Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Committee pointed out that between 2010 and 2020, the ratio of active employees to retired employees decreased about 33%, from 2.02 active to 1 retiree, to 1.35 to 1.

“As a result of the decrease, the payroll of fewer active members must fund future pension obligations, a factor made more important because contributions from active members and their employers comprise approximately 46% of PERS revenues” as of 2020, the report pointed out.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Senate passes redistricting that puts DeSoto Republican, Tunica Democrat in same district, calls for 10 new elections

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4 hours ago

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February 26, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – Taylor Vance – 2025-02-26 17:17:00

Senate passes redistricting that puts DeSoto Republican, Tunica Democrat in same district, calls for 10 new elections

by Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
February 26, 2025

Voters from 10 Senate districts will have to re-decide in November special elections who should represent them in Jackson, pending court approval, under a resolution the Senate approved on Wednesday. 

The chamber passed the plan 33-16. Two Democrats joined with the GOP majority to support the plan, while three Republicans joined with the Democratic minority to oppose it. 

Even though voters just elected members of the Legislature in 2023, the 10 races will be held again because a three-judge federal panel determined last year that the Legislature did not create enough Black-majority districts when it redrew its districts.

The panel ordered the state to redraw the districts and create a new majority-Black district in the DeSoto County area in the Forrest County area. 

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Dean Kirby, a Republican from Pearl, told senators that the newly redrawn map complies with federal law and will allow Black voters in the two areas to elect a candidate of their choice. 

“It’s not a partisan ordeal,” Kirby said. “We have a court order, and we’re going to comply.” 

The map creates one new majority-Black district each in DeSoto County and Forrest County, with no incumbent senator in either district. To account for this, the plan also pits two pairs of incumbents against one another in newly redrawn districts. 

The proposal puts Sen. Michael McLendon, a Republican from Hernando, who is white and Sen. Reginald Jackson, a Democrat from Marks, who is Black, in the same district. The redrawn District 1 contains a Black voting-age population of 52.4%. 

McLendon spoke against the proposal, arguing the process for was not transparent and it was not fair to the city of Hernando, his home city. 

“I don’t want to be pushed out of here,” McLendon said. 

The plan also puts Sen. Chris Johnson and Sen. John Polk, two Republicans from the Hattiesburg area, in the District 44 seat.  Polk announced on the Senate floor that he would not run in the special election, making Jonson the only incumbent running in the race. 

  • The full list of the Senate districts that were redrawn are: 
  • Senate District 1: Sen. Michael McLendon, R-Hernando, and Sen. Reginald Jackson, D-Marks
  • Senate District 2: David Parker, R-Olive Branch 
  • Senate District 10: Neil Whaley, R-Potts Camp 
  • Senate District 11: New Senate district with no incumbent 
  • Senate District 19: Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven 
  • Senate District 34: Sen. Juan Barnett, D-Heidelburg 
  • Senate District 41: Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall 
  • Senate District 42: Sen. Robin Robinson, R-Laurel 
  • Senate District 44:  Sen. John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, Sen. Chris Johnson, R-Hattiesburg 
  • Senate District 45: New district with no incumbent 

McLendon and Sen. Derrick Simmons, a Democrat from Greenville, offered amendments that proposed revised maps, but both alternatives were rejected. 

Simmons, the Senate’s Democratic leader, opposed the plan the Senate passed Thursday because he does not believe any incumbent senators should be paired in the same district.

The House earlier in the session approved a plan that redrew five districts in north Mississippi and made the House district in Chickasaw County a majority-Black district. 

Sen. Kirby told reporters he believes the House and the Senate have a “gentleman’s agreement” to pass the other chambers’ plan, which has historically been the custom. 

Under the legislation, the qualifying period for new elections would run from May 19 to May 30. The primary election will be held on August 5, with a potential primary runoff on September 2 and the general election on November 4.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has no direct say in legislative redistricting, so once the Legislature passes a redistricting plan, it will go back before the federal courts for approval. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Convicted killer whose parole sparked outrage dies in car crash

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8 hours ago

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February 26, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2025-02-26 13:31:00

Mississippi let a double murderer go free. Twice.

Now he is dead, and an older couple is injured.

In May 2023, the Mississippi Parole Board released James Williams III — 18 years after he was convicted of fatally shooting his father, James Jr., and stepmother, Cindy Lassiter Mangum. Williams had previously tried to poison them to death.

His parole faced pushback from the victims’ family, community members and lawmakers. 

At the time, Zeno Magnum, whose mother was killed by Williams, decried the Parole Board’s decision. “He murdered ‘em, threw ‘em in trash bags, put them in Rubbermaid trash cans and threw ‘em out like the trash,” he said. “We are concerned not only for our personal safety, but also for the safety of anyone who may come in contact with this psychopath.”

Parole Board Chairman Jeffrey Belk defended the Parole Board’s decision, saying they received no objection from the family or others at the time — a claim that Magnum’s family disputed.

Less than five months after his parole, he got drunk and wrecked his car on Oct. 20, 2023, the same day of the Brandon-Pearl high school football game, Magnum said. “There were people everywhere. He’s very fortunate he didn’t kill anybody.”

Williams’ parole was revoked, and he returned to prison. 

A month later, the Parole Board found that by violating the law, he violated a condition of his parole. Three of four members voted to return him to prison for a year, according to court records, and Belk cast the lone “no” vote.

Hinds County Circuit Judge Debra Gibbs vacated the Parole Board’s decision to return Williams to prison for at least a year for violating parole. 

“Mr. Williams has already served more than ninety (90) days in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections,” the judge wrote. “Therefore – unless he is held pursuant to some other sentence or order – he SHALL BE RELEASED IMMEDIATELY from the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and returned to parole.” 

The judge agreed with Williams’ argument that his DUI misdemeanor constituted a technical violation of his parole, meaning that 90 days was the maximum period he could be imprisoned for a first-time technical violation. The judge’s decision matched a recent attorney general’s office opinion on the subject.

When word came that Williams might go free again, Cindy Mangum’s sister, Barbara Rankin, said her family set up a Sept. 16, 2024, meeting with Parole Board members, she said. “They let him out a week before we were set to go.”

Around noon Saturday, Williams met his death near Sanctuary Drive. The 39-year-old was driving his 2009 Honda Civic north on Will Stutely Drive when he collided with a 2019 GMC Sierra that contained Curtis Jones, 73, and his 72-year-old wife, Ruth, who were traveling east, according to the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

Williams was pronounced dead on the scene. Paramedics transported the couple to St. Dominic’s Hospital in Jackson. Their injuries remain unknown, and the patrol continues to investigate to determine if Williams had been intoxicated.

“The ironic thing,” Zeno Magnum said, “is if he was still in prison, he would be alive.”

The whole ordeal has been “cloaked in secrecy,” he said. “My mom was killed, and it was like pulling teeth to get information on it. It was tough even for me as her son to get information.”

Williams’ death has brought him a wide range of emotions. On one hand, he doesn’t want to celebrate the loss of a human being, he said, but on the other hand, the death “does bring my family and I a great deal of closure.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Crooked Letter Sports Podcast

Podcast: Three Mississippi teams in the Top 25 D-1 Baseball poll

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8 hours ago

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February 26, 2025

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mississippitoday.org – Rick Cleveland and Tyler Cleveland – 2025-02-26 12:00:00

Southern Miss and Ole Miss got some welcomed news as both joined Mississippi State, giving the Magnolia State three teams in this week;s college baseball poll. Otherwise, the college basketball grind continues and the best high school basketball teams converge on Jackson for the annual MHSAA boys and girls state tournament.

Stream all episodes here.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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