PERS is a diversion, a red herring. PERS payments will be made whether M97 passes or fails. M97 has absolutelyno impact on PERS. The Court has said definitively that unilateral retroactive reneging on contracts is illegal. So school districts have no discretion over payments. PERS benefits have been reduced over 20 times since 1995. We face the current funding challenge  partly because the legislature tried again to use retirement funds to pay for state expenditures. The Court rightly called it out. Unfortunately, the legislature spent the illegal taking, and now it must be returned. This happens because powerful right wing anti-all-tax interests keep crying PERS. The real problem is raising revenues for necessary expenditures. That is never easy. In our present economy, it is harder than usual. As Jack Bogle says: "States and municipalities will need to raise taxes to pay their bills. And nobody likes that." 

You can unlike M97 for legitimate reasons. But  PERS is not among them.