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March 29, 2024
January 29th, 2012
Posted On: Jan 30, 2012

Brothers and Sisters,

We continue to work on stopping the collective bargaining bill. Currently the bill is in the Senate State Affairs committee. This is a good committee for us as we have a number of key friends on this committee. At this point the bill is sitting in the chairman’s drawer. Our goal is to keep it there until the session ends. Again, independent actions by our members can impact the results we have at the Capitol. Please do not act (write emails, send letters to the editor, call legislators, etc.) unless we direct you to do so. Let’s keep our powder dry until it’s needed. I am cautiously optimistic that we will get through this session without this bill getting anywhere. 

I’ve heard some concerns from some or our members about PERSI. I realize that there has been some public discussion about changing our plan to a defined contribution plan. Fortunately, many legislators understand that PERSI is a phenomenal pension system and that dismantling it would have some serious impacts to the state. First, it would be very expensive to make the change as the state would have to continue to fund current members’ benefits and then find a way to fund the new system. This is not an easy task. Second, PERSI is an economic engine that pumps $500 million dollars into the state economy every year.  Changing to a DC plan would erase that impact as retirees would have less money to spend and would actually draw money from the state budget as many would need to be on government assistance in one form or another. 

We are still moving forward with presumptive illness legislation. We are in the process of refining our strategy with the sponsor and doing important leg work to make sure the bill moves through the process with the littlest amount of trouble. We do expect resistance from several groups, but we are also developing a good coalition to support the bill. We plan on introducing the bill soon. I will update you as things develop. 

Please contact me with any questions or comments .

Mike Walker

Professional Firefighters of Idaho

Executive Vice President

(208) 869-6469

pffimike@gmail.com


 
 
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