Committee debates expanding public-safety retirement plan to corrections, EMS and 911 operators; amendments to align definitions approved

The committee considered multiple bills and amendments that would expand eligibility for the public-safety retirement plan to additional employee groups, including state correctional officers, emergency medical services (EMS) personnel and 911 operators.

PERS staff and advisers explained the drafting complexities that require consistent definitions across bills that touch the same code sections. Derek Holbein, PERS chief operating and financial officer, told the committee that several related bills had already passed earlier stages and needed to be harmonized with the bills under consideration: "I did just wanna point out that House Bills 10 77 and 11 12 have already passed and they also do touch this similar sections of code," Holbein said.

Rebecca Fritke, PERS executive director, described the proposed change to add state correctional officers to the public-safety plan and to allow correctional officers who are enrolled in but have not yet completed an approved correctional officer course to be treated consistently with political-subdivision correctional officers. "We want to make sure we keep the hour requirement," Fritke said, and recommended mirroring language adopted earlier in a related bill so the entry process is consistent.

Committee members debated the policy grounds for expanding the public-safety plan. Some senators said EMS and 911 operators experience intense stress and should be eligible; others questioned the plan’s lower retirement age assumptions given available average life-expectancy data and expressed concern about cost and precedent. Senator Wallen and others pressed for clarity about whether inclusion would be optional for local governments or mandatory; staff confirmed the bill would make political-subdivision participation optional and that the state radio employees (about 30 positions) would be a small state cost.

The committee approved an amendment to align correctional-officer definitions across related bills so the newly added state correctional officers would be treated the same as political-subdivision correctional officers who enroll while completing certification. The committee adopted the amendment on roll call and later recorded committee motions to advance the bills; one bill was re-referred to appropriations for fiscal analysis and one received a due-pass-as-amended recommendation (recorded roll calls in the transcript).

Why it matters: Expanding public-safety retirement eligibility affects benefit formulas, employer contributions and long-term pension liabilities. The committee’s alignment of definitions was intended to avoid creating inconsistent eligibility rules across state and local jurisdictions.

Committee actions included adopting definition-alignment amendments and forwarding bills for further fiscal consideration.