Oregon School Boards Association

"Clearly the court’s decision is going to have enormous impacts on school budgets from 2017 and beyond, unless the Legislature addresses the situation," said OSBA communications specialist Alex Pulaski. "We have all seen the Legislative Fiscal Office’s estimates that school districts will face an additional PERS bill of about $358 million total in 2017-19. If districts have to cut their budgets as a result, as they have done repeatedly over the last 10 years, that would likely lead to teacher layoffs, larger class sizes and lost teaching days.

After talking with our legislative team, it appears we are not in a position to predict what path legislators might take to resolve the situation. First, we all need more time for PERS to determine precisely how much rates will go up and whether any other changes will be taking place as a result of the decision. Although we expect to be working with legislators on a solution to mitigate the effects of this ruling, it’s unclear at this point what forms that might take." 

House Republicans 

"It’s clear that we need to focus on growing and strengthening our economy to cover the costs of these ballooning pension liabilities since the Supreme Court reversed much of the work the Legislature undertook to address this fiscal crisis facing Oregon. Local governments and school districts across the state again face massive uncertainty and risk as they struggle to adequately fund schools and critical public safety services, said House Republicans communications director Kara Walker. 

"Given the Supreme Court decision’s implications for any future attempts at PERS reforms, the Legislature must take steps to foster growth in Oregon’s private sector and also enact legislation that protects and promotes Oregon employers. Creating permanent, family-wage jobs and increasing incomes and wages across the state will help to stabilize local governments and also work to address the PERS costs that we and future generations now face because of decisions made in the past."

Representative Tobias Read, (D-Beaverton) 

“This bill would help earn money to fill the gap by cutting Wall Street fees instead of cutting public services. It upgrades and modernizes our investment programs and practices while improving oversight.”

Senator Tim Knopp (R-District 27)

“As far as what the Supreme Court ruled in regards to the Public Employee Retirement System I believe that we have to focus on three things: Redirecting the 6% IAP member contribution, setting the amortization rates for money match at a level that will reflect the private sector rates, and placing new employees in contribution plans similar to those in the private sector.”

Governor Kate Brown

“I will be reviewing the ruling and assessing next steps, including the short and long term fiscal needs of PERS, and I will be working with the PERS Board to determine what next steps they will take.”

Melissa Navas, Press Secretary for Governor Brown: 

"The opinion leaves a lot of questions about implementation. Governor Brown has asked PERS and DOJ to analyze the opinion and provide advice for implementing it."

Senator Chris Edwards (D-District 7)

"I'm not aware of any immediate solution to the PERS issue. Oregonians have a choice to either continue underfunding public services, or to get real about revising the tax system. It's not going to be easy. This was devastating to Oregon's budget."