LANSING – Five members of the Michigan Education Association have filed a lawsuit against the state that accuses the Legislature and Gov. Jennifer Granholm of violating several laws when they enacted the public school employee retirement legislation.
The lawsuit challenges the legality of the law’s requirement that public school employees who do not take advantage of a retirement incentive pay an additional 3 percent of their wages into the pension system beginning October 1. The lawsuit, filed in the Michigan Court of Claims, says the law, PA 75 of 2010, violates the contract formed when the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System was set up in 1980, causes the Legislature to impair an existing contract and abridges the pension system’s financial liabilities.
“School employees have been and are continuing to make sacrifices in these tough budget times,” said MEA President Iris Salters in a statement. “But taking an additional 3 percent out of their paychecks to pay for retirement benefits without any guarantee that those benefits will be there is an unconscionable act by legislators – particularly since those same legislators are still guaranteed their own lifetime health benefits after serving only six years in office. This clear attempt to balance the budget on the backs of employees is not only unfair, it’s illegal.”
Said MEA General Counsel Art Przybylowicz: “MEA is confident that PA 75 will be ruled unconstitutional and when that happens, the state would have to re-pay millions of dollars to school employees. Keeping the funds in escrow assures the state will be able to do that without worsening Michigan’s already dire financial situation.”
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