55 COUNTIES GET NEW RETIREMENT PLAN

JACKSON -- Elected officials and employees in 55 Missouri counties now have a retirement plan. For those in the other counties, they have two plans.

Legislation passed earlier this year provided a retirement plan for county officials and employees.

Many counties in the state, including Cape Girardeau and Scott counties, have been covered for several years under the Local Government Employees Retirement System called LAGERS.

Sheriffs and prosecutors had their own state retirement programs, but other officials and employees were not covered.

Also, for years a state retirement plan has been in effect for employees of the circuit clerk and other court-related offices.

The main reason for the legislation "was to give counties that have nothing an opportunity to have a retirement plan," Cape Girardeau County Auditor H. Weldon Macke said. "The plan was based on providing something for everybody."

Macke said he believes after several years of trying, a bill was finally drafted that provides a retirement system that will be solid financially.

A big argument was that the "playing field wasn't level out there any more thanks to the legislature," he said. "It wasn't level because sheriffs and prosecutors were able to lobby their own plans through the legislature."

Other officeholders asked, "If you are going to give it to two, why not everybody?" Macke said.

Another problem was that groups of officeholders, with clout in the legislature, were pushing bills to fund retirement plans for their offices.

The General Assembly had passed retirement bills for employees and elected officials in 1992 and 1993 but Govs. John Ashcroft and Mel Carnahan had vetoed them.

Carnahan signed this year's bill.

Employees in counties without LAGERS will have to contribute 2 percent of their salaries toward the plan.

In counties with LAGERS, employees will be covered by the new plan and won't have to pay anything unless they want to buy back prior years of service.

Employees of counties that don't have LAGERS will also have a chance to buy back prior years of service.

Under the new plan, employees and officials must serve eight years to draw benefits.

Employees of counties without LAGERS will receive benefits equal to 1.5 percent, times their number of years of service, times their highest two-year average salary.

Employees and elected officials of counties that have LAGERS will receive benefits equal to 1 percent of their salaries under the new plan. LAGERS will pay 1.5 percent.

Macke said people who are on LAGERS now don't have to do anything unless they want to buy back years.

"Essentially, those of us under LAGERS will have two retirement plans," he said.

The new plan doesn't allow anyone to collect benefits until 1997.

For some Cape Girardeau County employees the new plan will allow them to participate by working a minimum of 1,000 hours a year. Under LAGERS, only employees working at least 1,500 hours can participate.

Many counties without retirement plans were smaller ones. Without support from larger counties, the financing would be inadequate.

The employee contributions will be subsidized from increases in some fees charged by county collectors, assessors and recorders.