How to address the teacher retirement debt is another friction point for lawmakers.
Governor Sean Parnell says a House Finance Committee proposal to deal with the teachers’ retirement system is “immoral” and shifts the debt obligation to future generations.
Parnell wants the plan pulled from his education bill.
The committee added the retirement plan to its rewrite of the bill, HB278. But Parnell says they’re two, very separate issues.
The bill is scheduled for the House floor Friday.
Parnell has proposed putting $1.1 billion into the system and making annual payments of about $340 million over 20 years. Trust fund earnings would eventually be used to pay benefits.
The committee plan proposes a $1.4 billion cash infusion and would start with smaller annual payments, and payments stretched over a longer period.
Legislative Finance Division Director David Teal says the approaches are just philosophically different.
