Oregon schools get some relief from rising retirement costs amid tough budget season
The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System, or PERS, building in Tigard, Ore., on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. (Bryan M. Vance / OPB)
In a budget season rife with cuts and constraints, school districts have some good news.
The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System, known as PERS, has announced a reduction in pension contribution rates for K-12 school districts.
Agency leaders said the one-time move will provide much-needed budget relief to districts across the state for the 2025-27 biennium.
'Thanks to the support of Gov. Kotek and the Legislature,' Oregon PERS Director Kevin Olineck said, 'we were able to recalculate employer contribution rates and deliver real, measurable cost reductions for our school employers.'
School districts, large and small, are facing another year of multi-million-dollar budget deficits. And they were expecting a big hit from PERS.
Back in the fall, school leaders learned that the increase in PERS costs in the upcoming biennium was going to be more than Gov. Tina Kotek's initial budget increase for the State School Fund. In other words, despite her investing more in education, that money would be wiped out quickly by the rising costs of Oregon's retirement system.
But in December, Kotek doubled the proposed increase in K-12 spending, which more than offset the PERS increase.
Lawmakers further reduced the costs this spring by passing Senate Bill 849. The bill, introduced by Kotek at the request of PERS officials, changes how the state retirement agency distributes money from its School Districts Unfunded Liability Fund. That brought down the estimated retirement costs for schools from $670 million to just over $500 million.
The changes from the bill reduce some of the burden on school districts to absorb rising retirement costs. Contribution rates for school employers will drop 1.68 percentage points as a result, reducing costs by about 6% over the next biennium. For school districts, this translates into $168 million in savings statewide — money that can now be used for other needs.
It's not certain yet how these rates will continue or change for school districts in the next biennium. Analysts are already expecting an increase in 2027-29, followed by a significant decrease.
But for now, the change is significant for local districts.
In Portland Public Schools, for example, this change is expected to pay for dozens of teachers. That's a welcome development considering the state's largest school district had a $40 million budget gap when approving its budget for next school year.
'[This bill] is estimated to reduce our expenditures in one year (by) about $7.6 million, which is equivalent to about 50 teaching positions,' explained Michelle Morrison, chief financial officer for PPS, when giving testimony to lawmakers in April.
'As you are aware, the School District Liability Fund has been kind of sitting and unable to offset our costs actively in the moment,' she said to lawmakers. 'So, this is an excellent opportunity, while those rate increases are significant, to put those dollars to work.'
The Oregon School Employees Association, AFT-Oregon, the Oregon School Boards Association and the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators were among the supporters of the bill. It passed with only four dissenting votes in the Oregon Senate and unanimously out of the Oregon House.
Louis De Sitter with the Oregon Education Association spoke to that in his testimony.
'I think the bipartisan nature of the bill,' he said, 'and the fact that both management and labor are so supportive of this, is indicative of a really good process, and a bill that we do believe will have a big impact for our districts across the state.'
This article was originally published by Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
In major reversal, Kotek seeks return of fugitive suspected of targeting Asian Oregonians
Gov. Tina Kotek delivers her State of the State address on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. She recently ordered the extradition of a suspected member of a multi-state burglary ring from Texas to Oregon. (Laura Tesler/Oregon Capital Chronicle/pool) Gov. Tina Kotek on Friday said she has ordered the extradition of a suspected member of a multi-state burglary ring from Texas to Oregon who allegedly targeted Asian households throughout the Eugene area, averting some of the blowback she faced for rejecting the extradition earlier this week. The reversal marks the second time in the past two weeks that Kotek has changed course in an extradition decision in the wake of public pressure. The governor made a more explicit reversal in May regarding the transfer of a woman accused of embezzling from Eugene Weekly, a move the locally-beloved newspaper has called 'an about-face.' This time, the decision to extradite came 'after further communication with the Lane County DA's office and review of the information provided,' Roxy Mayer, a Kotek press secretary, said in an email. The governor is 'still not moving forward' with the extradition of another member of the burglary ring who fled Oregon and who is being held in Texas with an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement hold. 'We were notified two days ago that the Governor's Office has changed their position on funding in [a] case where our Asian residents were targeted,' Lane County District Attorney Christopher Parosa said in a statement. 'I am grateful for that. It will go a long way to allowing us to make that community feel welcomed and protected in Lane County.' Parosa told The Register-Guard on Tuesday that Kotek's denial was out of the ordinary and 'seems to be an attempt by the governor's office to put that financial obligation on the local communities, who, of course, have never had that responsibility in the past.' He declined to elaborate on the state's extradition efforts to the Capital Chronicle but shared a statement in an email. 'It is my hope that further dialogue regarding extradition funding requests will occur between the Governor's Office and the Lane County District Attorney in the near future,' he said. Jennifer Jonak, a board member at the Eugene-based Asian American Council of Oregon, said in a statement that the group is 'grateful that the Governor's office has heard and taken into account the impact on our Asian American community.' Jonak said the council is still reviewing further details regarding the suspect still on ICE hold in Texas. 'We deeply appreciate the hard work of local law enforcement agencies and the Lane County DA's office who have worked so hard to obtain justice for the victims of these race-targeted offenses,' she said. The Oregon governor has the discretion to make decisions on extraditions in light of the sometimes high costs, a factor Kotek's office has highlighted when explaining its recent rejections of extradition requests. Costs of retrieving alleged criminals from other states have significantly increased since 2020, according to data shared by Kotek's office. The average cost of extraditions from 'non-shuttle states' – those are states that don't participate in cost-sharing and inter-state coordination with fugitive return – has risen about 30% since the 2019-2021 biennium. Police in Eugene described the burglaries as part of a 'multi-state crime ring targeting wealthy individuals of Asian descent, to include business owners, doctors, and others,' according to one February news release, including states such as Washington and Idaho. The suspects surveilled and targeted homeowners who they believed were likely to store valuables at home, police say. Authorities estimated similar crimes continued throughout summer and fall of 2024. While some suspects have been arrested and charged, many warrants remain standing nationwide as several alleged perpetrators are believed to have fled the country. Officials have not named or released a country of origin for the suspect. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Oregon schools get some relief from rising retirement costs amid tough budget season
The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System, or PERS, building in Tigard, Ore., on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019. (Bryan M. Vance / OPB) In a budget season rife with cuts and constraints, school districts have some good news. The Oregon Public Employees Retirement System, known as PERS, has announced a reduction in pension contribution rates for K-12 school districts. Agency leaders said the one-time move will provide much-needed budget relief to districts across the state for the 2025-27 biennium. 'Thanks to the support of Gov. Kotek and the Legislature,' Oregon PERS Director Kevin Olineck said, 'we were able to recalculate employer contribution rates and deliver real, measurable cost reductions for our school employers.' School districts, large and small, are facing another year of multi-million-dollar budget deficits. And they were expecting a big hit from PERS. Back in the fall, school leaders learned that the increase in PERS costs in the upcoming biennium was going to be more than Gov. Tina Kotek's initial budget increase for the State School Fund. In other words, despite her investing more in education, that money would be wiped out quickly by the rising costs of Oregon's retirement system. But in December, Kotek doubled the proposed increase in K-12 spending, which more than offset the PERS increase. Lawmakers further reduced the costs this spring by passing Senate Bill 849. The bill, introduced by Kotek at the request of PERS officials, changes how the state retirement agency distributes money from its School Districts Unfunded Liability Fund. That brought down the estimated retirement costs for schools from $670 million to just over $500 million. The changes from the bill reduce some of the burden on school districts to absorb rising retirement costs. Contribution rates for school employers will drop 1.68 percentage points as a result, reducing costs by about 6% over the next biennium. For school districts, this translates into $168 million in savings statewide — money that can now be used for other needs. It's not certain yet how these rates will continue or change for school districts in the next biennium. Analysts are already expecting an increase in 2027-29, followed by a significant decrease. But for now, the change is significant for local districts. In Portland Public Schools, for example, this change is expected to pay for dozens of teachers. That's a welcome development considering the state's largest school district had a $40 million budget gap when approving its budget for next school year. '[This bill] is estimated to reduce our expenditures in one year (by) about $7.6 million, which is equivalent to about 50 teaching positions,' explained Michelle Morrison, chief financial officer for PPS, when giving testimony to lawmakers in April. 'As you are aware, the School District Liability Fund has been kind of sitting and unable to offset our costs actively in the moment,' she said to lawmakers. 'So, this is an excellent opportunity, while those rate increases are significant, to put those dollars to work.' The Oregon School Employees Association, AFT-Oregon, the Oregon School Boards Association and the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators were among the supporters of the bill. It passed with only four dissenting votes in the Oregon Senate and unanimously out of the Oregon House. Louis De Sitter with the Oregon Education Association spoke to that in his testimony. 'I think the bipartisan nature of the bill,' he said, 'and the fact that both management and labor are so supportive of this, is indicative of a really good process, and a bill that we do believe will have a big impact for our districts across the state.' This article was originally published by Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Federal judge orders ICE not to remove trans migrant seeking asylum from Washington detention facility
A federal judge in Oregon on Tuesday issued an order barring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from removing a Mexican asylum seeker from a Washington detention facility, according to local reports. The migrant, a 24-year-old transgender woman identified as "O-J-M" in court documents, was arrested outside a Portland courtroom on Monday and transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio, a President Joe Biden appointee, also demanded that ICE provide the exact date and time of the removal from Portland and explain why it was deemed immediately necessary. Federal Judge Refuses To Reconsider Order To Facilitate Deportee's Return To Us Baggio's order was prompted after O-J-M's attorneys said they were not aware of their client's location and filed a habeas petition, a legal request asking a court to determine whether a person's detention or imprisonment is lawful. The migrant's attorney, Stephen Manning, of Immigrant Law Group, told Opb that O-J-M was processed into the Tacoma detention center, but he had not been granted access to her since her transfer. Read On The Fox News App Her attorneys said O-J-M was abducted and raped in Mexico because of her gender identity and sexual orientation and was seeking asylum on those grounds. "They threatened to kill her because O-J-M is a transgender woman," her habeas petition states, per OPB. "Fearing for her life, she fled and sought asylum in the United States in September 2023." Us Judge Accuses Trump Admin Of 'Manufacturing Chaos' In South Sudan Deportations, Escalating Feud Oregon sanctuary laws prevent it from having long-term immigration detention facilities, and -- aside from temporary holding cells at the Portland ICE office -- the nearest immigration detention center is the Tacoma facility. OPB reported that O-J-M sought asylum at a port of entry along the California-Mexico border, where she was arrested, detained and released. Since then, O-J-M has attended ICE check-ins and filed her formal asylum claim in February. In April, immigration officials began removal proceedings against O-J-M, the outlet reports, citing the migrant's attorneys. Manning told Willamette Weekly that his client had not committed a crime while in the U.S. During a mandatory court hearing for her asylum case in Portland on Monday, ICE attorneys moved to dismiss O-J-M's case entirely—effectively stripping her of both the case and the legal protections it provided. Afterward, ICE agents apprehended O-J-M. That led to Innovation Law Lab Attorney Jordan Cunnings, who also represents O-J-M, saying the arrest was a "dangerous attempt by ICE to circumvent due process, speed up deportations, and eviscerate the right to asylum." "This unethical behavior goes against the values we hold as Oregonians, ensuring that everyone is welcomed and included in our state," Cunnings said, per Koin. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said that the city "stands unwavering in its commitment to sanctuary policies," adding that Portland "will not obstruct lawful federal enforcement operations," per Willamette Weekly. Fox News Digital has reached out to ICE and Homeland Security for article source: Federal judge orders ICE not to remove trans migrant seeking asylum from Washington detention facility