Florida Fire Fighters Fight Attacks on Retirement Benefits

March 16, 2010 -- The Florida Professional Firefighters (FPF) is launching a campaign to defeat three proposed pieces of Florida state legislation that, if passed, would put unwanted limitations on fire fighter pensions and retirement plans.

“We have already met with Senate leadership and are working to meet with House leadership,” says FPF Governmental Relations Director Randy Touchton. “Meanwhile, we are asking all Florida fire fighters to contact their state senators and tell them to vote against Senate Bill 1902 and to contact their house representatives and tell them to vote against House Bills 1319 and 1543.”

Senate Bill 1902 focuses primarily on local pension plans. If passed, administrative control over these plans would be back in the hands of the participating municipalities. Current provisions related to extra pension benefits would be eliminated. Additionally, any participant with less than 10 years on the job would be capped at 70 percent and the benefit calculation would only include base pay. In other words, overtime or other sources of compensation would not be included.

House Bill 1319 addresses changes in the Florida Retirement System (FRS), and would also redefine compensation to exclude overtime, annual leave or supplemental pay benefits. It would cap retirement benefits for those with less than 10 years of service at 80 percent. Special risk participants’ (such as fire fighters) retirement age would be increased to age 60 and 30 years of service. Accrual rates for special risks would be reduced from 3 to 2.75 percent. Average Final Compensation (AFC) would change from highest five years to an average of an entire career (30 years for a normal pension). Employees would be required to contribute 1 percent of salary to a current employee non-contributory system. Additionally, it would require all public pensions plans to provide a five-year projection for employer contributions (all plans with fewer than 20 members are exempt).

There are additional bills proposing a reduction to the current 3 percent annual COLA and a complete elimination of the defined benefit pension plan for all new hires. These proposed changes are being made to one of the healthiest public employee pension plan in the country - a plan that has been more than 100 percent funded for the past decade and is currently funded at nearly 100 percent.

House Bill 1543 contains many of the same provisions as House Bill 1319; however, one of the major differences is the elimination of all positions currently in the special risk class, except for fire fighters, law enforcement and correctional officers. It would also cap the retirement benefit for those having less than 10 years to 70 percent, excluding overtime or additional compensation above the base salary.