(AP) " A bill to reduce public employee and retiree benefits and enact benefit reforms " steps that Republicans sought in exchange for their votes to override a veto of a $781 million tax increase " was sent Friday by lawmakers to Gov. Jim Gibbons.
The changes in SB427, approved a day earlier in both the Assembly and Senate, tighten benefits for new employees and retirees and change rules collective bargaining on pay and benefits.
On retirement, the bill changes the "multiplier" used to calculate the percent of public employees' salaries they get after they retire. Currently, for every year of work employees are entitled to 2.67 percent of their yearly pay, to a maximum of 75 percent. That "multiplier" changes to 2.5 percent for new hires.
The bill also reduces cost-of-living adjustments. Currently, retirement checks can increase by up to 5 percent per year for people retired for 15 years or more, and that's reduced to 4 percent. There are smaller adjustments for those with less retirement time, starting in their fourth year off the job.
The bill also changes the date that new employees are eligible to retire. Currently, those employees hired before 2010 can retire at age 65 if they have at least five years of service, age 60 if they have 10 years of service, and at any age if they have at least 30 years of service.
For new employees, those requirements change so that those who have at least 10 years of service can't retire until they are 62 years old. Also, it will take such employees 15 years instead of five to get a health insurance subsidy.
If a collective bargaining agreement isn't resolved after six rounds of negotiations, the dispute could be submitted to an arbitrator. Also, a local government contract must have a full fiscal hearing to ensure the public know the costs and terms of the contract.