By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – First responders who saw their retirement benefits reduced through 2011 state reforms have been pushing hard to change back the terms of their retirement plan and Monday moved one step forward when the Senate Finance Committee agreed to an amendment to the House budget.
First responders who were hired by July 1, 2011, but were not vested by January 1, 2012, are considered Group II, Tier B and had their pension benefits reduced.
Sen. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton, offered the amendment which would push out payments.
The House in its budget allocated the fund $27.5 million a year for the next ten years.
Lang’s measure was opposed by several key Republicans, including Senators Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, and Senate President Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry. It has still to go before the full Senate on Thursday and supporters, like Sen. Howard Pearl, R-Loudon, said this is not likely the final product.
The budget writers also voted to recommend that the administrator of the Youth Development Center settlement fund be chosen by the governor and Executive Council rather than the way it is currently done, which is by appointment of the Supreme Court.
GROUP II
Both Democrats and Republicans have agreed with Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte that funding the Group II retirement plan is an important public safety issue.
Sen. James Gray, R-Rochester, who chairs the committee said pushing this out another six months puts the payment plan into a sixth biennium budget rather than just five two-year terms.
“And having the state pick up what is referred to as the ‘normal costs,’ which we are told is going to be about $6.5 million per year, of course those normal costs won’t really hit until we get a couple years down the line. But that means $27.5 million a year. You are going to boost that up another $6.6 million,” with the amendment offered by Lang.
“Certainly having the employees and state picking up a portion of that which was in the amendment I wrote was a savings, doing it over the four years was a savings. And certainly those are things weighing heavily on my mind,” Gray said.
Birdsell thanked Lang for his work on the amendment but said she could not support it.
“Frankly no one can question the support that I have had for first responders, with the work I have done on the (post traumatic stress disorder) commission and the pieces of legislation that I put in for them. But for me this goes a little bit too far. It takes the wants of about 1,500 employees against the needs and requirements of 1.4 million.
“So for me Senator Gray’s amendment was a much better negotiation. It was truly a recruitment and retention plan. It gave the young Group II employees an increased multiplier for their retirement so to me that was a recruitment tool. It required members to work for one or two more years, that was the retention piece. And again, it covered the municipalities like Senator Lang’s did. It saved enough money so the state could go ahead and pay the municipality portion saving our constituents so on that basis I am going to have to vote against it,” she said.
Carson said she could not support the amendment as well and that it should wait for a full review of all state pension plans in 2027.
“This is a major policy change that has not gone through a policy committee. It was put into the budget in the House. This is a very complicated system and it is very sensitive and we have to be very, very careful about what we do with this system because it does affect the lives of people who have stepped up and are first responders: for our police and fire.”
Carson added she did not want to see anyone hurt by this process.
“I would also like to remind my colleagues that this has been a very, very difficult budget. We have had to make a number of very painful cuts and I just don’t believe that this is the time to bring this forward. It should have been a bill that was filed that had gone through both the House and Senate (Executive Department and Administration) committees. They are the ones who have the expertise on this,” she said.
In 2027 another commission is looking at the retirement system and she said that would be the appropriate time to make this decision.
“When you have all the actuaries sitting at the table and having a full examination of the retirement system to find out where it is, how healthy it is, what is happening with it. Because we’ve tinkered with it since 2017. I think that would be a much better time,” Carson said.
Pearl said he was going to support the amendment “not as a destination but as a bridge.”
He said the Senate needs to get it into the committee of conference between the House and Senate and noted it is not likely the final decision on this issue.
“I think this is a good step forward with Group II, it is not where we will end up,” he said.
On voice vote the amendment passed.
YDC ADMINISTRATOR
The Honorable John Broderick Jr., a retired Supreme Court chief justice, was selected by the high court in October, 2022, to oversee the fund which has offered victims of sexual assault and assault by staff at the former state Youth Development Center a chance to avoid court and receive a settlement from the state.
So far, about $160 million has been spent by Broderick on settlements while it is estimated there are over 1,300 claimants, some of which could decide instead to fight it out in court.
It is estimated it could cost the state over $1 billion.
The vote to change how the administrator is selected was 6-2 with Democrats objecting. It could become part of the budget if approved by the Senate this Thursday.
Sen. Gray offered the amendment which takes the position into the political realm.
Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, asked Gray if he showed his amendment to stakeholders, including the claimant’s legal council.
Rosenwald said the more she thinks about the administrator being appointed by the governor and council the more it seems like the defendant, being the state, is picking the negotiator “which I think could cause anxiety on the part of claimants and their counsel and may be less willingness to engage with the fund,” and instead to go to a court trial.
Gray said her concern was noted.
The vote was to recommend the change.
Attorney David Vicinanzo, who represents many of the victims, said after the meeting, “This is quite an imprudent power grab. What victim is going to agree to have the perpetrator decide their case?
“We were disappointed to see this last minute reversal, especially after the settlement fund just passed its audit with flying colors because it is working well as it was supposed to. None of the victims actually harmed by the State as children were consulted on this amendment. If they had been, the legislature would know that this would be a betrayal of the victims.
“For three years, the State has promised an independent, impartial, victim-friendly process to decide the claimants awards, which is the only fair and decent way to run a successful settlement process. The State is the perpetrator of the abuse against these kids. Now, the State wants to be the judge in its own case, and throw out the impartial process the State itself adopted and has been promising for three years.
“More than a thousand victims have given up their rights and relied on the State’s promises, and breaking those promises to them now will ensure more painful, risky and expensive litigation; the re-opening of old wounds; and harm to the State’s reputation for honesty and reliability.
“It is time for the State to do the right thing by the kids it brutally harmed, and keep the promises it made three years ago,” Vicinanzo said.
On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee meets again to try to finish up more budget amendments and decisions ahead of Thursday’s full Senate vote.