Mississippi Today

Lawmakers ponder stripping state retirement system authority after board votes to raise rates

Published

1 year ago

February 7, 2023

Lawmakers ponder stripping state retirement system authority after board votes to raise rates

by Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today
February 7, 2023

After Public Employees Retirement System Board of Trustees voted to require an additional $345 million annually from state and local governmental entities to fund the pension plan for their current and former employees, lawmakers are considering changes to the system's authority.

The PERS board voted in December to increase the employer contribution rate, which is paid by state governmental agencies, school districts, county and city governmental entities. The current government contribution is 17.4% of the employees' paycheck. The board voted to increase the rate to 22.4%.

Ron Higgins, PERS executive director, said the increase is needed to ensure the system is properly funded long-term.

The increase means state agencies will have to provide an additional $265 million toward their employees' retirement, and local governmental entities will have to provide the rest. If more money is not appropriated by the Legislature to pay for the increase, the state agencies, university and community colleges and local school districts will have to make cuts in other areas so they can meet the mandate of the PERS Board. Local governmental entities also are required to provide the funds for the increase. Under current law, the Legislature cannot prevent the employer increase from going into effect.

A bill is pending in the Legislature, though — House Bill 605 — that could be used to give the Legislature final authority over whether to enact such an increase. Legislators have expressed frustration this year with the PERS board's decision to increase the employer contribution rate.

When asked if he planned to bring the bill up for consideration before the full chamber, House Appropriations Chair John Read, R-Gautier, said, “All I can say is the bill is on the calendar. It is out there. It might need some more research.”

During a recent meeting, Senate Appropriations Chair Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, said he understands the need to ensure the pension plan is properly funded, but also expressed concern that the actions of the PERS Board have “a direct impact on the state agencies and programs and opportunities for other people to have jobs and salaries and not get laid off and have cuts in a number of areas.”

Higgins, the executive director of PERS, said, “We just have to make sure it is fiduciary (and) that the system is funded property.” Higgins said the board postponed recommendations of its financial experts to increase the rates in earlier years because of the impact it would have on state and local budgets.

But he said under state law, the only option the board has to correct any funding deficiencies is to increase the employer contribution rate. It would take the Legislature changing the law to allow the board to increase the employee contribution rate or to change the level of benefits. The Legislature has the authority to take such action.

Higgins said more than 300,000 people are members of the system, meaning they are current retirees receiving benefits or are eligible to receive benefits in future years because of their public service. He said the average retiree receives an annual benefit of $26,000.

The planned increase in the employer benefit, which is not slated to go into effect until October, comes on the heels of a year when the system lost more than 8% on its investments. The board postponed recommended increases in the employer contribution rate the past two years in part because of investment earnings of 32.71% in 2020.

But Higgins said the rate increase is not because of investment earnings for any one year. He said it is being enacted because of the long-term prognosis for the system.

The system's current full-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. It is recommended that a state retirement system has a funding ratio of about 80%.

Hopson pointed out that the Mississippi Public Employee Retirement System employer contribution rate and the rate paid by employees (9% of their paycheck) is among the highest in the country. Higgins agreed, saying the national rate for employees in similar plansis about 6% of their paychecks, and for employers about 15%. The employer rate in Mississippi is currently 17.4%.

Lawmakers questioned whether the board is hiring competent experts to oversee the system and to make investments.

Higgins responded the system's investment earnings are comparable to those in other states.

But he said the system is stressed by the fact that additional benefits were added for employers in the late 1990s and early 2000s without a method to pay for those benefits.

In addition, the current governmental workforce is shrinking while the number of retirees in the system is growing. Higgins said during the past 10 years, the governmental workforce is down by about 10%, while the number of retirees has increased by more than 25%.

“Every time we take a public service at the state or local level that was performed by a PERS contributing employee and privatize and give it to a someone who is not contributing, that ratio gets more out of whack,” said Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson.

Higgins said the board could provide recommendations on how to reduce the cost to the system. In the past some legislators have talked about temporarily suspending or altering the annual automatic 3% cost of living increase. But outcry from retirees who represent about 10% of the state's population has stymied those efforts.

Higgins said another option would be to change the benefits for new hires. While that would help long term, Higgins said it would not be an immediate fix.

Sen. Jason Barrett, R-Brookhaven, asked if the board had made any recommendations for the 2023 Legislature to consider. Higgins said it has not, but added it is his understanding that there is not an appetite to address the issue during an election year. But he said the board could provide recommendation.

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

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Mississippi Today

Read Mississippi Today’s Pulitzer Prize finalist series ‘’Unfettered Power: Mississippi Sheriffs”

Published

7 hours ago

May 6, 2024

Staff Editor

Mississippi Today's “Unfettered Power: Mississippi Sheriffs” investigation has been named a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting.

The 2023 investigation from the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today and The New York Times' Local Investigations Fellowship revealed how Mississippi sheriffs rule like kings, wielding vast power, exploiting and abusing the very people they are called to protect with no one stopping them.

The seven-part 2023 series, which has continued into 2024, included new details about the Rankin County “Goon Squad.”

Click the links below to read the Pulitzer Prize-recognized series.

Sex Abuse, Beatings and an Untouchable Mississippi Sheriff

Where the Sheriff is King, These Women Say He Coerced Them Into Sex

New Evidence Raises Questions in Controversial Mississippi Law Enforcement Killing

The Sheriff, His Girlfriend and His Illegal Subpoenas

How a ‘Goon Squad' of Deputies Got Away With Years of Brutality

Days After Rankin's ‘Goon Squad' Tortured Two Men, Supervisors Gave the Sheriff a Pay Boost

Who Investigates the Sheriff? In Mississippi, Often No One.

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

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Mississippi Today

Mississippi Today named 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist for “Unfettered Power: Mississippi Sheriffs” investigation

Published

8 hours ago

May 6, 2024

Staff Editor

Mississippi Today's “Unfettered Power: Mississippi Sheriffs” investigation has been named a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting.

The 2023 investigation from the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today and The New York Times revealed how Mississippi sheriffs rule like kings, wielding vast power, exploiting and abusing the very people they are called to protect with no one stopping them.

The series included new details about the Rankin County “Goon Squad.”

“I feel so blessed to see our work investigating sheriffs in Mississippi recognized by the Pulitzer Prize Board,” investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell said. “This honor doesn't belong to us. It belongs to the people who dared to stand up and share their stories — victims of violence, sexual assault and many other abuses.”

This is Mississippi Today's second consecutive honor from the Pulitzer Prizes. The newsroom won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for its “The Backchannel” investigation into key players in the welfare scandal, making it the seventh Mississippi news outlet to win in the history of the prizes.

“This series shocked the conscience of Mississippi, and the impact this group of incredible journalists had is enormous,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today's editor-in-chief. “Anyone who has read the stories can see how much time and energy they put into serving the state, and they are so deserving of this recognition.”

The seven-part “Unfettered Power” series documented in vivid detail the stunning abuse of residents by officers across Mississippi for more than two decades. Officers spied on and tortured suspects and used their power to jail and punish political enemies.

The reporting was based on difficult-to-get interviews and a deep examination of records, including thousands of pages of Taser logs. Using other department records, the reporting team determined which device was assigned to each deputy, allowing reporters to substantiate allegations of torture by victims and witnesses.

“None of this would have happened without the hard work of our three tremendously talented investigative reporters, Ilyssa Daly, Brian Howey and Nate Rosenfield,” Mitchell said. “They are a model for what dedication, determination and perseverance can accomplish. Because of them, we know that the future of investigative reporting is in great hands.”

The impact of the series was profound. The reporting prompted federal investigations and the drafting of several pieces of Mississippi legislation to limit the power of sheriffs.

“In a short time Mississippi Today has built a prize-winning newsroom that has produced a string of accountability stories,” said Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times' Local Investigations Fellowship. “Our combined coverage of horrific abuses by sheriffs in the state is an example of the power and importance of local investigative reporting. It has yielded results, and the work continues.”

The Pulitzer Prize is the most prominent award earned by Mississippi Today, the state's flagship nonprofit newsroom that was founded in 2016. The newsroom and its journalists have won several national awards in recent years, including: two Goldsmith Prizes for Investigative Reporting; a Sidney Award for thorough coverage of the Jackson water crisis; a Collier Prize for State Government Accountability; and the John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award.

Mississippi Today and its staff have also won dozens of regional and statewide prizes, including dozens of Society of Professional Journalists Green Eyeshade Awards; several Mississippi Press Association awards for excellence, including a Bill Minor Prizes for Investigative Reporting; and the 2023 Silver Em Award at University of Mississippi.

“We as Mississippians are so fortunate to have strong investigative journalism in our state,” said Mary Margaret White, Mississippi Today CEO and Executive Director. “This level of reporting takes a great deal of focus, determination and grit. The journalists being honored today are public servants in the truest sense, catalyzing accountability and change and standing up for, and with, those whose voices are otherwise ignored.”

This is Mitchell's second time to be named a Pulitzer finalist. He was previously named a finalist in 2006 for his relentless reporting on the successful conviction of Edgar Ray Killen, who orchestrated the killing of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia in 1964.

The ongoing work on the sheriffs series is far from done, he said.

“We've just begun to shine a light into the darkness in Mississippi, and we can already see the roaches scattering,” Mitchell said.

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

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Mississippi Today

Could Spencer Rattler be Saints quarterback of the future? Archie Manning thinks so.

Published

11 hours ago

May 6, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Rick Cleveland – 2024-05-06 11:38:53

Probably the biggest surprise in the recent NFL Draft came in the fifth round when the New Orleans Saints, who just last year signed veteran quarterback Derek Carr to a four-year, $150 million contract, chose South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler.

The Saints hadn't been expected to take a quarterback. Rattler had been expected to go much higher.

At least one expert, a former New Orleans Saints quarterback and a Mississippi legend, believes the drafting of Rattler was a wise choice by his hometown team.

“I like Spencer,” Archie Manning said recently. “I like him as a person and as a player. I can't wait to see what he does for the Saints.”

Rattler, an Arizona native, played college ball first at Oklahoma and then for the past two seasons at South Carolina. Manning knows Rattler best from when he was a counselor at the Manning Passing Academy the summer between Oklahoma and South Carolina.

“I really enjoyed Spencer at our camp,” Manning said. “His attitude was great. He worked hard, got along great with all the other quarterbacks and the campers. At our meeting to start every day, he always came in early, sat front and center and just seemed to soak everything in. He had a maturity about him. He wanted to learn. He just had this little gleam in his eye. Obviously, he can really throw the football.”

Manning, who counts South Carolina coach Shane Beamer as a friend, watched Rattler for the past two seasons, even visiting Columbia for practices and attending quarterback meetings.

“I just couldn't be any more impressed with how Spencer handled things, including some disappointments,” Manning said. “I think he has a bright future in the NFL.”

There are several knocks on Rattler that might have caused him to fall in the draft. For one, he stands just a shade over six feet tall and he is not particularly fleet of foot. That will bother some teams a lot more than it should bother the Saints, who were led to their only Super Bowl championship by a six-foot quarterback with average speed named Drew Brees.

Also, there was the transfer from Oklahoma to South Carolina after Rattler lost the starting quarterback job to Caleb Williams (the first pick of the 2024 draft). And there have been reports that an unflattering 2019 Netflix documentary, filmed during Rattler's senior year of high school when he was the nation's No. 1 quarterback recruit, caused some NFL teams to lower their evaluations. Said Manning, “I haven't seen that documentary but I've heard about it. All I know about his attitude and makeup is what I've seen first-hand.”

Clearly, Rattler has some upside. At Oklahoma and South Carolina combined, Rattler threw for over 10,800 yards, 77 touchdowns and 32 interceptions with a 68.5% completion rate. As a junior at South Carolina, he led the Gamecocks to eight victories including back-to-back wins over No. 5 Tennessee and No. 8 Clemson. He threw for 438 yards and six touchdowns against the Vols, 360 yards and two TDs against Clemson. Then, in the Gator Bowl against Notre Dame, he threw for 360 yards and two scores.

Last season, when South Carolina replaced much of its offensive line, Rattler was sacked 30 times but still threw for 3,196 yards and 19 touchdowns and only eight interceptions. Rattler was outstanding in the Senior Bowl, winning MVP honors.

A cynic might joke that the 30 sacks will be excellent preparation for the Saints, who hope to have solved some of their pass-blocking woes by taking Oregon State offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga with their first round choice. Fuaga did not allow a sack his entire senior season.

Rattler is expected to battle Nathan Peterman and Jake Haener for the back-up role behind Carr this preseason. Many, including Manning, believe he could project as a long-range starter down the road.

It has been amazing to watch the devaluation of the running back position in the NFL over recent seasons. Not a single running back was selected in the first round in the 2024 draft. Texas halfback Jonathan Brooks was the first back taken with the 14th pick of the second round, the 46th pick of the draft. Greenville native Trey Benson was the second running back taken (by the Arizona Cardinals) with the second pick of the third round. And get this: Benson's high school teammate Dillon Johnson, the Washington Huskies running star, wasn't taken in the draft at all.

Johnson, who runs with both power and speed, ran for 1,195 yards and 16 touchdowns, helping the Huskies to the national championship game despite a broken bone his right foot, a sprained left ankle and a ruptured bursa sac in his left knee. Seems to me the steal of the 2024 draft might be someone who wasn't drafted at all. Also seems to me those injuries to Johnson are an indication of why running backs are not valued as highly as was once the case. The shelf life of NFL running backs is not particularly long.

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

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