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Committee hears support and cost concerns for bill to boost police and firefighter retirement benefits and study retiree health insurance
Summary
Senate Bill 751 would create a police‑and‑fire classification within OPSRP, raise the retirement multiplier from 1.8% to 2.0% for covered members and create a task force to examine health insurance for retired police officers and firefighters; unions supported the bill while local governments and PERS flagged added pension and administrative costs.
Senate Bill 751, introduced by Sen. Gorsek and explained to the Labor and Business Committee on Feb. 25, 2025, would direct the Public Employees Retirement Board to define "police officer" and "firefighter" for the sole purpose of determining eligibility for increased pension benefits, apply a higher multiplier to the final average salary calculation (moving from 1.8% to 2.0% for covered members), and create a task force charged with recommending options to close the health‑insurance gap for retired police officers and firefighters.
Alexandria Goddard testified on behalf of Sen. Gorsek, saying the multiplier change “doesn't sound like a lot, but it is” when multiplied by years of service, and argued first responders deserve more secure retirements and access to health care for the 10‑year gap between typical police/fire retirement ages (often 55) and Medicare eligibility at 65. Firefighter and police organizations testified in favor: Carl Koenig of the Oregon State Firefighters Council urged the committee to adopt a broader state statutory definition of firefighter to include EMS and prevention professionals, and Michael Lopez of the Oregon State Police Officers Association said the change would help recruitment and retention in a competitive market.
Local government representatives raised fiscal concerns. Scott Winkels of the League of Oregon Cities said the multiplier change would increase average employer PERS contribution rates for covered employers by roughly 1.7 percentage points of payroll (an 11% increase to the police-and-fire payroll cost in PERS staff estimates) and warned such increases would compound other recent pension cost changes. Kevin Olynyk of PERS summarized fiscal and administrative impacts, estimating increased employer contributions of about $25.6 million per biennium and administrative implementation costs on the order of prior hazardous‑position work. PERS recommended delaying effective dates until the agency's pension administration modernization is further along and advised coordination on implementation timing.
Committee members heard both the policy arguments for enhanced retirement and study of retiree health coverage and the budgetary cautions. The committee closed the public hearing and will consider the fiscal estimates and implementation timing as it moves forward.
