State Supreme Court Accepts Pension Case
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will decide the fate
of the state’s new public employee retirement improvement law.
Justices on May 25 agreed to take original jurisdiction
in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law. That means
the lawsuit will go directly to the Supreme Court and not through lower
courts first.
The Legislature approved the improvements to the
retirement system last fall and the governor signed them into law a few
weeks later. The state Department of Employee Trust Funds and the Employee
Trust Funds Board filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of
the new law soon after the governor signed it. WEAC, one of the leading
advocates of the new law, has been named a defendant in the lawsuit.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in
the case in October, and a decision could be issued by the end of the
year.
WEAC Legal Counsel Tony Sheehan said it is important
for WEAC members to recognize it is not necessary to wait for the court
to rule before making a decision to retire. He said if the law is upheld,
the benefits will apply retroactively.
Resource
page on the pension improvement law
Posted May 26, 2000