WSU VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT INCENTIVE
March 16, 2009
Click for printer-friendly document
WSU requests authority to extend its retirement medical benefits program to
its 2,100 classified employees and some exempt staff employees that are all
on state administered retirement systems, principally PERS.
·
WSU has existing authority to offer its program to 80 percent of its 1,500
exempt staff and all of its 2,280 faculty.
Our existing authority allows us to make this program available to faculty
members in the “WSU Retirement Plan” as well as the
in the federal retirement system.
·
The university has already extended the offer to participate in this program
to those eligible staff & faculty and would like the authority to offer it
to its remaining employees, including all classified staff.
The WSU program is simple:
If an employee is eligible to retire under the current system, then WSU will
offer the employee an incentive of depositing $18,000 into a tax-exempt
medical expense plan account. This
account can be used by the retiree to pay medical expenses, including health
insurance premiums. The $18,000 is an amount considered adequate to fund
continued health insurance benefits for a single employee for three years
(an average projection for available plans.)
The goal of the bill is also simple:
We want to encourage our employees that are eligible to retire to actually
retire this year. The vacated positions would apply to our budget cuts and
reduce the number of current university employees that would become
unemployed through layoffs. WSU will not fill vacant positions created by
the retirements unless it is critical to do so. This means that we can lay
off fewer employees due to the biennial budget cuts. The proposed proviso
language would grant permissive authority to any higher education
institution or state agency to utilize the same plan. The $18,000 per
retiring employee benefit must be paid by that institution or agency out of
its own funds. We drew the permissive language broadly but would also be
willing to narrow it to WSU or just higher education.
A similar provision was included in
the current appropriations budget
(Section 909).
WSU proposes a proviso that has similarities to what
was included in the 2009-11 appropriations
bill, as long as the Office of Financial Management
and
the Department of Retirement Systems extend this
benefit to all persons eligible to retire. Currently under OFM guidelines,
an employee must have been eligible for “normal” retirement for at least 12
months in order to receive the incentive. WSU’s program seeks to allow all
employees who are eligible for early or normal retirement to receive the
incentive. OFM also currently prohibits offering the incentive to employees
in critical positions. WSU would not include that requirement so the
incentive could be offered to any employee eligible to retire.
WSU will internally adjust its resources to accommodate critical staffing
situations caused by retirement.
For more information:
Larry Ganders, Assistant to the President, 360-280-6320
