The Fight For Pension Reform Begins
Committee hearings for HB 1039 & 1040 are just the begining.
On Friday, January 13th, 2023 the most serious fight to reform the state’s bleeding pension fund began with a three-hour long hearing on the two bills.
This is a long-standing issue that I, the North Dakota Watchdog Network ( and the North Dakota Taxpayers Association before that), have pushed to reform.
I was asked to write an Op-Ed for the Grand Forks Herald on this issue in 2012.
Governor Burgum has made pension reform a flagship issue for the 2023 session:
The two bills are very similar, differing only in how much money is injected into the fund to bail it out immediately.
Legislative Council staff prepared a 4-page memo explaining what the 41-page bills do.
According to the actuarial report, as of last July, the current fund was at a 67% funding ratio. (Since the stock market has been declining since last summer, this ratio has certainly gotten worse.)
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