It’s not back to pre-2008 levels – but North Dakota’s Public Employee Retirement System is doing a lot better.
PERS director Sparb Collins says last year, the rate of return on the plan’s investments was 16 percent – much better than it had been. After the markets crashed in 2008, the Legislature did some things to shore up the plan – including increasing the contributions to the plan to 14 percent, split evenly between the state and the worker. Collins says there is a bill draft ready to go to make more improvements.
"It would take it from 14.12 to 16.12, split 50-50 between the employer and employee," said Collins. "Secondly, it would make some adjustments in benefits prospectively for new employees."
Collins says the bill would also make a change in when newly-hired employees could retire with full benefits.
"It would change the rule from a rule of 85 to a rule of 90," said Collins. "And the minimum retirement age would be raised to 60."
The “rule of 85” means an employee’s age plus years working for the government need to add up to 85 before full benefits could kick in.
Collins says given the fund’s performance last year, this bill may be tweaked as it goes through the process.