Citizens for PERS Reform PAC Announces Fall Voter Education Campaign

Oregon Citizens for a Sound Economy (OR CSE) and Citizens for PERS Reform PAC (CPR PAC), an affiliate of OR CSE, announced today that they will be conducting an education campaign for Oregon voters on the immediate and growing fiscal crisis of the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS).

OR CSE director Russ Walker had these comments:

“PERS is a system out of control. In June an $8.5 billion un-funded liability was predicted. It is now September and that liability is $11 billion and growing. OR CSE, CPR PAC and our 12,000 members believe that if PERS is not reformed, it will create an economic burden on taxpayers that will last for generations.

“The problems with PERS are real and threaten to overwhelm every other program funded by the taxpayers of Oregon – potentially even leading to both bankruptcies of the system and of the State of Oregon. Oregonians are seeing tax dollars allocated for schools disappear into a public employee retirement bureaucracy. Money that should be going to the classroom is being siphoned off to pay for a bloated PERS system, which is in drastic need of reform. Additionally police, fire, and other critical services face drastic cutbacks if the PERS scandal is not addressed.

“In the coming weeks, you will see CPR PAC educating the public about PERS to bring truth to our state’s budget discussion. We will target the worst abusers of the public trust and educate citizens about the shocking truth that the PERS scandal is truly described as Enron-like. The only difference between PERS and Enron is that in the end, Oregon taxpayers are stuck holding the PERS debt.”