Prop. 125 will help public servants secure their futures

Two years ago, Arizona voters approved in a landslide Proposition 124, a bipartisan pension-reform measure designed to save taxpayers more than $1.5 billion over the next three decades.

This election, voters have the chance to put the finishing touches on fixing Arizona’s public-safety pension system by voting “yes” on Proposition 125, a measure that repairs the retirement plans for corrections officers and elected officials in exactly the same fashion as Prop. 124 did for Arizona’s police and firefighter retirement system.

If passed, Proposition 125 will save taxpayers an additional $275 million over the next several decades. As the chairman of the state’s Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, and as a career firefighter in Phoenix, I know firsthand how much those millions in savings mean not only to overburdened Arizona families, but also to cities, towns and state agencies that can use those tax dollars to fund community services residents rely on, such as public safety, education, safer roads and better infrastructure.

That’s why the PSPRS Board of Trustees has endorsed a “yes” vote on Proposition 125, as have Republican and Democratic state legislative leaders, and the state’s Chamber of Commerce.

Simply put, Proposition 125 offers taxpayers significant savings and helps preserve the secure middle-class retirement promised to current and retired corrections officers and to elected officials such as judges, county attorneys and others. By coupling savings and retirement security, Prop. 125 represents a “win win” for all concerned.

The Great Recession of last decade created enormous damage to PSPRS, a pension-underfunding crisis you have no doubt seen in the news.

Just as Proposition 124 did in 2016, Proposition 125 seeks a small but meaningful change to the Arizona Constitution, this time to shore up the state’s underfunded Elected Officials’ Retirement Plan and the Corrections Officer Retirement Plan. This tweak will put these pensions plans back on the path to good health by replacing a poorly designed system of near-annual benefit increases with a reasonable, sustainable Cost of Living Allowance for retired members. That adjustment will be tied to Consumer Price Index changes for the Phoenix and Mesa metropolitan areas as determined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

All told, the plans comprising PSPRS serve more than 59,000 members across our state. The vast majority of these members are the very public servants who stand between us and danger — in our jails and prisons, on the street, or in our courtrooms. In return for decades of public service, our state has promised these men and women and their families a safe, stable retirement they can rely on in the future.

Proposition 125 represents another important step to solving Arizona’s pension crisis and, just as importantly, to ensuring that those who serve us have the retirement they have been promised in return for a hard, valuable career of work.

Proposition 125 is a smart, fair measure crafted by one of the broadest stakeholder groups in Arizona political history. The measure will help taxpayers, Arizona communities and the thousands of members who depend on our agency to secure their future. Please, join us in voting “yes” on Proposition 125.