{"id":12824,"date":"2012-09-07T14:02:14","date_gmt":"2012-09-07T18:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=12824"},"modified":"2012-09-14T13:45:17","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T17:45:17","slug":"florida-supreme-court-to-decide-if-state-must-repay-1-billion-in-pension-contributions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/09\/07\/florida-supreme-court-to-decide-if-state-must-repay-1-billion-in-pension-contributions\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Supreme Court To Decide If State Must Repay $1 Billion In Pension Contributions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

UN1SON\/flickr<\/p>

A rally protesting state budget cuts.<\/p><\/div>\n

Do you have a right to pension benefits in a right-to-work state?<\/p>\n

That’s one big question the state Supreme Court is facing in a lawsuit over the constitutionality of changing Florida\u2019s pension requirements.<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2011, lawmakers needed to plug a multi-billion budget hole and saw a chance to save the state almost a billion dollars a year.<\/p>\n

The Legislature approved a law requiring state government employees to contribute three-percent of their salary into the Florida Retirement System.<\/p>\n

The move affects more than half a million workers, including teachers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Teacher unions say the move amounts to a 3-percent pay cut and the Florida Education Association<\/a> (FEA) challenged the law.<\/p>\n

Last spring, a Leon County Circuit judge agreed with the FEA that the law was unconstitutional because it changed the contracts of current employees and took away their collective bargaining rights.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Attorney Ron Meyer defended the ruling before the Florida Supreme Court Friday. He argued the contract should have changed only for employees hired after the law went into effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t change the game in the middle of the game, Your Honor,\u201d said Meyer. \u201cThat\u2019s an impairment of contract, and that\u2019s proscribed by the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice Charles Canady countered that the state can choose to save money anytime by laying off employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a hard time understanding how, when someone does not have a right, a continuing right to employment, they have a continuing right to a particular benefit of employment,\u201d said Canady.<\/p>\n

Former Justice Raoul Cantero argued on behalf of the state. He said the Legislature has the power to react to changing financial circumstances, like a massive budget deficit.<\/p>\n

That prompted this exchange with Justice Peggy Quince:<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you say the Legislature could in fact eliminate the retirement program completely?\u201d asked Quince.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing forward, constitutionally yes,\u201d replied Cantero.<\/p>\n

Quince continued, \u201cSo, that would mean also that the Legislature could in fact increase the employees\u2019 contribution every year, couldn\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cantero responded, \u201cTheoretically yes, going forward, obviously not going backward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until last year, state employees didn\u2019t have to contribute any of their pay to the Florida Retirement System. The state covered the contributions for them.<\/p>\n

Most employees in other states as well as the private sector are expected to contribute<\/a> some of their own money to retirement plans in order to receive employer contributions.<\/p>\n

Governor Rick Scott issued this statement about Friday\u2019s hearing:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case is about our efforts to maintain a responsible and sustainable budget for the State of Florida\u2026The legal question in the case is straightforward.\u00a0The Legislature relied on and carefully followed a thirty-year-old Florida Supreme Court case, which held that the Legislature can change the public pension system on a going-forward basis.\u00a0 We therefore expect the Supreme Court to follow its own prior decision.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

If the state loses this case, it will have to reimburse almost a billion dollars to state employees, ranging from teachers to police officers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you have a right to pension benefits in a right-to-work state? That’s one big question the state Supreme Court is facing in a lawsuit over the constitutionality of changing Florida\u2019s pension requirements. In 2011, lawmakers needed to plug a multi-billion budget hole and saw a chance to save the state almost a billion dollars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":12826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[672,1028,671,1047,1059,1079],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12836,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12824\/revisions\/12836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}