Link: https://oregonroundup.substack.com/p/oregons-pers-problem-only-bad-options
Graphic:
Excerpt:
The timing of the latest financial projections from the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System, as reported by The Oregonian’s Ted Sickinger, could not have been more appropriate.
As the Oregon Legislature was inching toward the conclusion of a special session it claimed was necessary to ensure continuance of basic road maintenance, the actuary for the PERS system issued preliminary estimates of investment earnings and required contributions by public employers indicating that the state is going to need a lot more money unless it finds a way to reduce pension obligations or operate more efficiently.
Whether your political preferences lean left or right or reside in the middle, the report should scare you. Unless the Legislature is able to accomplish one of three difficult things, the state’s descent toward the bottom of national rankings is likely to pick up speed. Here’s a look at each one, all fraught with risk.
Raise taxes more, probably a lot more.
….
Enact further PERS reforms
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Downsize state and local government
….
This is a problem that has been building for a more than a half century. Aside from occasional efforts to make minor fixes that at best slowed the bleeding, the Legislature has chosen to ignore the problem and hope for a miracle cure in the form of outsized investment gains. But despite record stock-market gains over most of that period, the day of reckoning finally appears upon us. And, as usually happens when one delays necessary treatment, the patient already is in critical condition.
Author(s): Mark Hester
Publication Date: 7 Oct 2025
Publication Site: Oregon Roundup