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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2020)
TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2020 Baker City, Oregon 4A Write a letter news@bakercityherald.com OUR VIEW PERS cost makes recovery harder Oregonians don’t need reminding how much worse slipping into a recession can be when they are loaded up with debt. It’s a bad combination we wouldn’t wish on anybody. But Oregon’s state government has brought just that sort of combination on to the state’s taxpayers because of the state’s $24 billion Public Employees Retirement System debt. The COVID-19 pandemic is not something legisla- tors or Gov. Kate Brown anticipated. They can hardly be blamed for that. When they are making the dif- fi cult choices to cope with COVID-19, though, those choices will be tougher because of that $24 billion hanging over the state. Let’s be clear. PERS does provides a valuable service to the state. Since 1945, it’s been providing re- tirement benefi ts to state workers. They deserve good retirement benefi ts. Contrary to what you might have heard, the average annual benefi t is about $31,000 a year and most benefi ciaries receive $3,000 a month or less. Yes there are some crazy payouts of more than $9,000 a month to some recipients — about 1,600 people. And we’d also rather see pension benefi ts work more like a 401(k) than some parts of the state retirement system. The $24 billion debt isn’t exactly like a credit card debt. It’s the money the state will have to have to meet its pension obligations in the future that it doesn’t anticipate having. That unfunded liability is covered in two ways, es- sentially. The fi rst are payments from employers with PERS employees. For instance, the Bend-La Pine Schools makes payments to cover the PERS benefi ts of its employees. Employers are paying a contribution rate of about 25% of payroll or about 18% of payroll because of money they are earning off side accounts. That’s a big chunk of money and it may well get bigger. That’s because the other way that unfunded liability is covered is from the performance of state investments. Investment returns provide about 75% of the money to pay PERS benefi ts. What just hap- pened to the stock market? It plummeted. The PERS board had assumed the rate of return on its invest- ments would be 7.2%. Will the market come rushing back up? Let’s hope so. Because if investment returns are low that $24 billion unfunded future liability, will grow. School dis- tricts, local governments and state governments will have to pay even higher percentages of payroll just to cover PERS benefi ts. And that will mean less money for school supplies and computers, less money to pave roads and — less money to pay state expenses from the COVID-19 pandemic. The PERS reforms passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Brown in 2019 were a step in the right direction. Those reforms, though, achieved most of their savings by putting off when the PERS debt would be paid. How bad do things have to get before legislators do more to address the PERS debt? To put the state on better fi nancial footing to handle a crisis? We know Gov. Brown and lawmakers have a more immediate emergency to deal with now. That $24 billion just makes it harder. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Baker City Herald. Columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the Baker City Herald. Flexible work could continue COVID-19 has, to put it mildly, altered our way of life. Most of these changes — like only leaving the house for essential reasons and staying at least 6 feet away from nonfamily mem- bers — will quickly dissipate. But some changes could stick around, at least in part, for the better. Hopefully we’ll all wash our hands more regularly than we did before. Some people will probably stick with their daily walks outside, or keep checking in on elderly neighbors. And there’s one other potential benefi t to many workers: a shift toward more fl exible work schedules and increased telework. Most businesses have been forced to close their doors and limit their opera- tions to what can be done remotely. This is obviously easier for some businesses than others. But many businesses and individuals, as part of a services-dominant economy that has experienced rapid growth in technology, have been able to continue working remotely, at least in part, even amid citywide and statewide shutdowns. Prior to COVID-19, remote work and increased workplace fl exibility were already on the rise in the U.S. This was due in part to improvements in tech- nology that make such arrangements possible. But worker demand was also a driving force. According to a survey by Zenefi ts, 77% of workers say fl exible work is a major consideration in their job searches, and a FlexJobs survey showed that 30% of workers have left a job because it didn’t provide fl exible work options. And 51% of people who enjoy the fl exibility of freelance work (includ- ing the self-employed, contractors, gig workers and other independent workers) say that no amount of money would defi nitely cause them to give up freelancing for traditional employment. Parents especially value workplace fl exibility and work-family balance — RACHEL GRESZLER even more than salary and benefi ts — with over 80% of parents listing these as their most important factors in a potential job. And as an increasing number of workers fi nd themselves caring for ag- ing baby boomer parents, they too want increased workplace fl exibility. Accord- ing to 2019 Freelancing in America Report, 10.5 million workers (18% of all freelancers) say they freelance because their family obligations prevent them from working for a traditional em- ployer. Flexibility is also extremely impor- tant — often essential — for individu- als with health issues or disabilities. According to the same Freelancing re- port, 11.4 million workers (20% of those who freelance) say that their health condition prevents them from working for a traditional employer. But they are able to perform fl exible freelancing jobs. Fortunately, employers are respond- ing to workers desires. According to a 2019 Survey of hiring managers by USA Today and LinkedIn, offering more fl exible work schedules was the most common way employers were competing to attract workers amid the then-record-low 3.5% unemployment rate. Yet many employers remain skepti- cal of fl exible and remote work for a number of reasons. For starters, there’s innate value in face-to-face interactions with co- workers, and that’s not going to change. If anything, the current situation has clarifi ed the diffi culty of performing certain functions remotely, and the value of personal interaction. It can also be hard for certain employers to monitor workers’ produc- tivity when they don’t see them in the offi ce or know when they are working. Some workers are more productive with fl exible and remote options, while others do better with structure, which can make it hard, particularly for large employers, to make fl exibility and telework uniformly available. Today’s forced telework experience provides an opportunity for workers to prove if they can maintain their productivity and responsiveness from home, and an opportunity for employ- ers to learn what type of work can be done remotely, and what is still diffi cult or impossible. In many cases, what was diffi cult or impossible before is now possible because businesses have been forced to adapt and implement new technolo- gies. Some of those changes will stick, and some won’t. But one benefi t of forced remote work could be an increase in workplace fl exibility and teleworking options. There will be some costs for employ- ers of implementing such policies, yet the benefi ts could be signifi cant. And not just for individuals and employers — but for the entire economy, because it can mean more individuals partici- pating in the labor force. That’s a triple-positive-whammy for the economy because it means more output, higher incomes and that work- ers can keep more of what they earn because fewer taxes are needed to sup- port government safety net programs. COVID-19 has brought tragic losses of lives and enormous economic disrup- tions. But it will likely also result in life-saving and life-improving changes in medicine and lifestyle. A potential silver lining could be increased workplace fl exibility that could help many Americans — particu- larly individuals with disabilities and caregivers — better manage, and enjoy, both their work and personal lives. Rachel Greszler is a research fellow in economics at The Heritage Foundation (heritage.org). OTHER VIEWS Editorial from The San Diego Union-Tribune: Of course, scammers are trying to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic, but common sense is a pow- erful tool to avoid getting ripped off. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. A Tuesday story in Business Insider warned about people getting social media requests from offi cial-sounding senders to provide personal informa- tion, purportedly to allow them to quickly get the up to $1,200 that is being given to eligible Americans in coming weeks under a recently enacted economic stimulus law. The story also reported some people were being mailed fake stimulus checks that they were told would only be valid if they called a specifi ed number and provided personal information. A Wednesday story in The San Diego Union-Tribune explained how texts purporting to be from Costco “of- fer” its members “freebies,” a “stimulus check” or a “stimulus package” if they click on a hyperlink that the FBI says may lead to ransomware, malware or other fraudulent methods to steal identity, fi nancial or personal informa- tion. In another example, a Wednesday story in the Washington Post revealed how con artists are using email, phone calls and the internet to sell bogus remedies for coronavirus, including “special toothpaste.” There are no over- the-counter or mail-order products available to treat or cure the virus now. If and when there are, that will be huge news. Everyone should be leery of these scams and warn family members and friends about their prevalence. Shame on anyone using an emergency of this magnitude to exploit scared, vulner- able people. CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS President Donald Trump: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500; 202-456-1414; fax 202-456-2461; to send comments, go to www.whitehouse.gov/contact. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. office: 313 Hart Senate Office Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3753; fax 202-228-3997. Portland office: One World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; 503-326-3386; fax 503-326-2900. Baker City office, 1705 Main St., Suite 504, 541-278-1129; merkley.senate. gov. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. offi ce: 221 Dirksen Senate Offi ce Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-5244; fax 202-228-2717. La Grande offi ce: 105 Fir St., No. 210, La Grande, OR 97850; 541-962-7691; fax, 541-963-0885; wyden.senate.gov. U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (2nd District): D.C. offi ce: 2182 Rayburn Offi ce Building, Washington, D.C., 20515, 202-225-6730; fax 202-225-5774. La Grande offi ce: 1211 Washington Ave., La Grande, OR 97850; 541- 624-2400, fax, 541-624-2402; walden.house. gov. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR 97310; 503-378-3111; www.governor.oregon.gov. Oregon Legislature: Legislative documents and information are available online at www.leg.state.or.us.
