The Legislature has sent Governor Rick Snyder a set of local retirement bills that passed by wide margins once they were stripped of controversial provisions.
The bills stalled last week as local governments and public employee unions protested measures that would give the state sweeping authority over local budgets.
Those were taken out, and now local governments will have their retirement plans assessed by the state Treasury, says state Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof.
“And then folks that have no financial issues will go on their merry way and continue what they’re doing.”
“Folks that need more attention can look at them, and say, you guys got to come up with a plan here, and it has to be financially sound. And I think that protects those benefits for folks going forward.”
The bills are an effort to identify what’s expected to be a small number of local government retirement plans that are under-funded. However, the Legislature dropped proposals to give state officials the power to order local governments to cut their budgets or sell assets when plans face shortfalls.
Republican state Representative Thomas Albert says that’s why he was a “no” vote.
“Really what I cared about was making sure retirees and active employees too that are promised a benefit actually get paid it. I just don’t have a lot of confidence in the current bills will actually achieve that goal.”
The bills would require the state Treasury to examine local retirement funds. Local governments that are under-funded would have to come up with a plan to fix that.