Senate Republicans call for voluntary pension program
PHOTO | Contributed
Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, along with other Senate Republicans, is proposing the state implement a voluntary pension program for small business.
This morning at a State Capitol news conference, Republican state senators called for replacing a proposed mandated pension program with a voluntary alternative.
The Republicans still want to see the state involved in setting up a marketplace to promote low-cost, high-quality plans offered by the private sector. Republicans said it would promote participating in retirement savings plans and educate small employers on plan availability.
The plan is based on on the Washington Small Business Retirement Marketplace, which was passed with bipartisan support in the state of Washington last year with the backing of AARP and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. A similar proposal was also passed in New Jersey this year.
Republicans said they are sharing this idea as an alternative to the Democrats’ state-administered public-retirement plan proposed in House Bill 5591. The state would need about $1 billion in assets to make the Democrats’ proposed plan sustainable.
“The proposal to create a state-administered public-retirement plan is an unaffordable new layer of bureaucracy in state government that would place more financial burdens on an already struggling state budget,” said Senate Minority Leader Leonard Fasano. He said the plan would displace a large segment of private-sector retirement planning and investment businesses.
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