PERS has been "renegotiated" (benefits reduced) over 20 times since 1995. The state has cut and carved and scraped all the money it can out of old folks' retirements. It has completely overhauled the system more than once. It has even tried to take money from old folks illegally, but the Court has put a fence up, consistently and rightly, when it comes to unilaterally retroactively reneging on contracts and taking money away from old folks that way. Retirement is expensive for everyone. It's a bear not to be able to make money any more. And retirement systems are expensive--no matter how much you cut from them. PERS is the red herring thrown out by parties that don't want to look at our dysfunctional revenue system and the overall expenses of the state. It's a way of avoiding the real issue. What other part of the state budget has been "renegotiated" and reformed and reduced as much as PERS?

And, by the way, PERS is healthy. Its liabilities grow an decline with the market, as planned.