Retiree: ‘Leave our money alone!’

Vern Bisterfeldt, who worked as a Boise city police officer for 28 years, then served as an Ada County commissioner, and now serves on the Boise City Council, is speaking out against the move by the House State Affairs Committee today to block a 1 percent cost-of-living adjustment for PERSI. Bisterfeldt is a PERSI retiree, and he said, “I’m so mad I could just spit.” Bisterfeldt said the COLA would mean “30 bucks for me a month. What’s that going to do for the state? And it’s not their money to start with.”

Bisterfeldt said he has a message for lawmakers: “Leave our money alone! You know, we worked hard and paid into that for a lot of years, it’s still being paid into, and it will recover. It’s always been healthy, and just because they’re looking for ways to cut the budgets in the present-day state budget, for God’s sake leave us alone.” Bisterfeldt said blocking retirees’ cost of living increase won’t save the state budget a dime. “What I can’t figure out,” he said, “is why?”