Gov. Snyder Plans to Tackle Unfunded Liabilities, Pensions and Retiree Healthcare

The governor has created a task force to look into “responsible retirement reform.”

Governor Snyder Mackinac

Jake Neher/WDET

Gov. Rick Snyder is going after Michigan’s mountain of unfunded retiree liabilities.

He created a task force to look into, “responsible retirement reform.”

Last year, Republican lawmakers tried and failed to overhaul public employee pensions and retirement health benefits. They said it was an effort to fix Michigan’s unfunded liability problem. 

Now this task force will come up with a list of pension and health care reforms, hopefully by this spring.

Rep. Andy Schor (D-Lansing) is on the committee. He said they are trying to find a balanced approach.

“We need to really dig down into, into what the causes are and how we can appropriately solve this problem without going after those who have best supported us over many years,” he said.

Schor said no local governments will go bankrupt tomorrow, but they need to be proactive.

“You know we, we have to make sure that we can pay off those debts in the long term and this is a good time to start looking at what can be done,” he said. “Again, without going after our employees.”

The task force is made up of finance, management and investment experts as well as lawmakers. 

Author

  • Cheyna Roth is the co-host and creator of WDET's state politics podcast, MichMash. She has been an audio journalist for almost a decade, covering major events like presidential elections, college scandals, the Michigan Legislature and more, appearing on NPR and across Michigan public radio stations. Cheyna is also a senior producer and podcast host for Slate.com, having produced and hosted shows like Political Gabfest, The Waves, and What Next TBD. Also an author, Cheyna has written two true crime books and her written work has appeared in Broadly, Slate, and MLive, among others.