Pension funding

When the railroad engineer sees a train wreck coming, he hits the brakes and tries to quickly set things right.

Montana is in that kind of situation right now, and if the Legislature doesn't correct matters, it's your wallet that will feel the impact.

At issue is the pension fund that supports Montana's retired teachers and state and local government workers. The Montana pension fund has an eye-popping shortfall of $1.4 billion. Teachers' pension shortfall is 87 percent of that total. This represents future costs and necessary money to fund various insurance and pension plans.

Montana's financial management has historically lacked long-term vision. Yet without planning, it's increasingly difficult to remain fiscally conservative. From my many conversations with Republicans, Democrats and Independents, it's apparent to me that folks are tired of throwing their tax dollars to fix problems without foresight.

These pension losses occurred over the past five years and are not yet actual deficits. Rather, they are obligations to pay pensions to tens of thousands of public employees over the next 30 years.

Montana's constitution is pretty darn clear — fund public retirement programs soundly. It's the responsibility of the Legislature to fix this problem.

Flathead County taxpayers know all too well that taxes are too high. Our local taxes have increase some 110 percent in the past two cycles alone.

Bonding our pension obligations hampers our ability to do good work for schools. Bonding university projects is more tangible than bonding for retirement bills due. We tax our kids with bills we neglect today.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer has committed $125 million of the one-time money in the state's general fund surplus to address the problems facing retiree and local taxpayers. That's $100 million for teachers, $25 million for public employees and equal amounts of property tax relief for homeowners and small businesses.

In 2001, the Montana Legislature made some bad decisions by increasing benefits but not acknowledging that this would contribute to our current shortfall predicament.

We find ourselves today in a pickle due to poor investment earnings and past legislative shenanigans. During any special session, colleagues on both sides of the aisle will strongly debate for targeting budget surpluses toward property tax relief.

By using surplus state dollars for teacher and local government retirement programs, we will honor our obligations to the Constitution, do right by our kid's future and secure our freedom to lower property taxes. Our best days lay ahead.

Mike Jopek

Whitefish