Arkansas retirement system to draft bills targeting debt

LITTLE ROCK — Leaders of Arkansas’ second-largest retirement system are considering how to adjust retiree benefits with the goal of reducing the system’s nearly $2.3 billion in unfunded liabilities, but retirees are concerned they’ll be financially hurt by the changes.

Trustees for the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System decided Tuesday to draft four bills, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported . The system has about 36,000 retired members and 46,200 working members, according to Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Co., a Michigan-based consulting firm.

One bill would have newly hired members and members with less than five years of service pay 6 percent of their salary to the system, up from 5 percent. Another proposed change would reduce the benefit multiplier from 2 percent to 1.8 percent.

Trustees are also seeking to increase the period used to determine final average compensation from 36 months to 60 months. The final bill seeks to reduce interest paid on member contributions from 4 percent to 2 percent annually.

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