Tagged: pension

EngageRI, the pro-pension overhaul group started with encouragement from state Treasurer Gina Raimondo, is reminding Governor Lincoln Chafee of how pension savings made possible many of the initiatives in his new budget.

EngageRI chairman John Galvin says in a statement:

A former head of the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service -- the government arm mediating Rhode Island's pension dispute among eight parties -- calls the case "the mother of all mediations."

Peter J. Hurtgen, who led the FMCS from 2002 through 2004, says a subset of the eight parties in mediation could potentially reach some areas of agreement among themselves. But he says the complexity of the case makes it unusually fraught for mediation:

The fate of the 2011 pension overhaul in mediation is among the top issues facing the state starting this month. As we transition into the New Year, Rhode Island Public Radio political reporter Ian Donnis has been talking with state leaders. We’ve already heard from Governor Lincoln Chafee and state Senate president Teresa Paiva Weed…. Our latest interview is with state Treasurer Gina Raimondo.

The court-ordered pension mediation set to begin this month will take place against an intensifying political backdrop: the early stage of the 2014 gubernatorial race. State Treasurer Gina Raimondo says politics can remain separate and apart from the mediation process.

(PROVIDENCE, RI) Providence firefighters vote Wednesday on a revised deal with the city. Paul Doughty, president of the city’s firefighters union, says members are voting on a couple of changes, but the most important one centers on how well their pension is funded. He says right now the pension is about 30 percent funded. Firefighters will vote on a provision requiring the city to pay at least 95 percent of its yearly contribution until the pension is 80 percent funded.

Governor Lincoln Chafee says he and the General Assembly have most of the authority to approve a settlement in a legal challenge to last year’s landmark pension overhaul. Court-ordered mediation is set to begin next month.
State treasurer Gina Raimondo was the architect of the pension overhaul passed last year by the General Assembly and signed into law by the governor. Raimondo and Chafee are both defendants in the legal challenge filed by five public-sector unions against the overhaul.
Chafee says approval by Raimondo isn’t necessarily part of a settlement in the case.