From hkuchta at ionet.net  Sun Nov 16 13:40:23 2003
From: hkuchta at ionet.net (Howard Kuchta)
Date: Tue Mar 23 20:26:30 2004
Subject: [Orea-list] New State Senate Web Site
Message-ID: <005801c3ac79$7df340e0$0100a8c0@Gateway3>

Sunday's Daily Oklahoman carried a brief article describing a new Oklahoma government web site.  The State Senate launched this new site just recently to allow citizens to know more about the legislative process and status of pending legislation.  The new site is:

http://www.oksenate.gov

Howard
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From hkuchta at ionet.net  Thu Nov 20 18:45:26 2003
From: hkuchta at ionet.net (Howard Kuchta)
Date: Tue Mar 23 20:26:30 2004
Subject: [Orea-list] Fw: Legislators Ponder Retirement Income
Message-ID: <001001c3afc8$c1bc02b0$0100a8c0@Gateway3>

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike W. Ray" <raymi@lsb.state.ok.us>
To: <raymi@lsb.state.ok.us>
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 5:36 PM
Subject: Legislators ponder: How much money does it take to retire in
comfort?


Oklahoma House of Representatives
November 20, 2003

By MIKE W. RAY
House Media Division Director
     OKLAHOMA CITY -- A federal agency calculates that an employee needs
to replace approximately 70 percent of his or her salary to be able to
retire in comfort, state legislators were told Thursday.
     "Every year we hear different requests from different retirement
systems to change this or increase that, but we never really know what
point we're trying to get to," said Rep. Larry Ferguson, chairman of the
House Committee on Retirement Laws. "It would be helpful if we knew what
percentage of a career state employee's salary we're trying to replace
with these pensions."
     In the absence of a benchmark, "It seems impossible to measure
whether the retirement benefits are meeting the desired objective,"
Ferguson said. "A target also would be useful in determining
cost-of-living allowances for retirees."
     The State of Oklahoma administers six pension systems: the Oklahoma
Teachers' Retirement System, the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement
System, the Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, the Police
Pension and Retirement System, the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Retirement
System, and the Uniform Retirement System for Justices and Judges.
     Tom Cummins, the Legislature's actuary, described retirement income
as a "three-legged stool" comprised of Social Security benefits,
personal savings and pension benefits.
     The amount of money a state or local government retiree needs to
live comfortably "ranges a lot," Cummins said. A typical amount is
"somewhere around 80 percent" of the employee's final salary, he
estimated. Ed Noltensmeyer, a House fiscal policy analyst, said the
Social Security Administration recommends retirement income equal at
least 70 percent of an employee's final salary to enable him/her "to
maintain a lifestyle."
     Rep. Larry D. Roberts recalled that in 1994 the Legislature
established $13,800 as the minimum final average salary used to compute
retirement benefits for members of the Public Employees Retirement
System. Roberts, D-Miami, was the principal author of that legislation
and formerly was chairman of the House Retirement Laws Committee.
     Cummins said the maximum annual pension benefit for retired police
officers and fire fighters in Oklahoma is 75 percent of their final
average wage.
                               -30-