Rep. Jacobsen speaks against raiding LEOFF 1 pension fund
Rep. Cyndy Jacobsen, R-Puyallup, spoke on the House floor against House Bill 2034, which raids the Law Enforcement Officers’ and Firefighters’ Retirement System Plan 1 (LEOFF 1) by depositing $569 million of the fund’s assets into the Climate Commitment Account (CCA).
The CCA has already brought in over $4.3 billion, and the governor’s proposed budget relies on transferring funds from the account to help plug the state budget hole.
Jacobsen said that although she doesn’t agree with the pension raid at all, if the majority insists on doing it, the money should go to help public retirees who worked for many years to keep the state government running and educate Washington children.
Jacobsen sponsored an amendment to direct the money into the state’s older retirement plans for public workers, Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) Plan 1 and Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) Plan 1, so that retirees in those plans receive yearly cost of living increases.
The majority voted against the amendment.
“I definitely don’t think that people will understand why we’re putting more money into the Climate Commitment Act when they’ve already collected $4 billion, and when we’ve already given example after example of where that money has been spent irresponsibly,” said Jacobsen, just before the House voted on the bill.
