Committee Backs Bill Adding Support Staff to Trust Funds Board

A Senate Committee Monday (August 24, 1999) gave its backing to a bill that adds a K-12 school district support staff member and a technical college support staff member to the Wisconsin Employee Trust Funds Board.

Senate Bill 97 was approved, 4-0, by the Senate Privacy, Electronic Commerce and Financial Institutions Committee. The bill is authored by Sen. Bob Wirch, who is co-chair of the Joint Committee on Retirement Systems. The bill must also be adopted by his committee before being sent to the Senate.

Voting in favor of the bill were Sens. Jon Erpenbach, Robert Jauch, Kim Plache and Brian Rude. Sen. Scott Fitzgerald was absent.

Wisconsin Federation of Teachers Lobbyist Ken Opin represented WEAC/WFT at a hearing and spoke in favor of the bill.

The State of Wisconsin Employee Trust Funds (ETF) Board is responsible for state policy on public employee retirement, health insurance and disability programs. Currently, 12 members serve on this board. None of them represent public school educational support personnel, even though thousands of technical college and school support staff are in the Wisconsin Retirement System.