As Republicans push for privatization of Social Security, Stewart Iverson, Republican leader in the Iowa Senate, is concerned about the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (IPERS).
In a letter to constituents, Iverson said he wants to increase the employee contribution toward retirement because the stock-market slide has caused the IPERS fund to be underfunded. Iverson makes the point that the stock market could again fully fund IPERS sometime in the future, but his analysis overall says volumes about privatization of Social Security.
Iverson says "a few slim years on investments in the stock market and people are living longer. We must make changes if we want retirees to receive the benefits they have invested in." Obviously the stock market has not been the answer for IPERS, which has always invested carefully. Iverson indicates his confidence in the stock market by suggesting that Iowa employees must contribute more to the fund because private employers do not contribute more to their funds in down years.
Iverson states: "The bill will only protect the integrity of the IPERS fund. However, if no changes are made to contribution rates, the underfunded liability will grow and in time the benefits will be at risk."
Those are partial quotes, and the letter is on his Web site [www.stewiverson.com], but this is not a ringing endorsement of stock-market based retirement funds. While the Republican Party trumpets privatization of Social Security, one of its well-known Iowa members is concerned that stock that the stock t hold up a fund that previously had been well respected and very solvent.
If a well-regarded group-retirement plan like IPERS cannot remain fully funded by its own contributions and employer contributions, how can we expect individual Social Security funds to provide the security that retirees need?
-Harold Tuchel,
Waterloo.
attribution
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