Let's all agree to fix pensions

Even though he’s a lame-duck governor, Brian Schweitzer deserves some applause for diving into the state’s serious pension problem if only because he’s putting a spotlight on the issue.

But the bottom line is, his plan for addressing a $3.4 billion shortfall in the public employees and teacher retirement systems probably won’t get traction once he leaves office at the end of the year, unless Democrats are successful in this November’s elections.

Whoever is in the governor’s office, and the party that controls the Legislature next year, will be the people who are charged with fixing the systems.

While Schweitzer paints a picture of Republicans being disinterested or wrong-headed on the matter, that is not the case. It is clear that GOP gubernatorial candidates and lawmakers are very aware of the problem, and they have different approaches to solving it than Schweitzer.

The Schweitzer plan involves keeping the defined-benefit plans alive by getting employers and employees to increase their contributions to the plans and directing natural resource revenues to the plans.

Generally, Republicans favor varying ways for new employees to choose how their plans are managed, and they want new employees to participate in plans similar to the 401(k) model that’s used in the private sector. Schweitzer calls this “doubling down on crazy” because he thinks new workers are needed to contribute to the pension funds to keep them solvent.

But let’s take the politics out of it. Realistically, if Republicans are in control they will seek thoughtful solutions that would fix the systems structurally, and in a fashion that would keep them solvent, just as Schweitzer hopes to do.

We’re certainly not going to endorse any approach at this point. It is a complicated problem and the public should closely scrutinize the alternative solutions that will be considered by the Legislature.

Schweitzer may only have a few months left in office, but he is right to bring attention to the state pension problem.