Beck: ‘I’m not that weird,’ actuarial report came from Hoffman

Former state Sen. Rod Beck just contacted Eye on Boise to say he didn’t just find the fiscal year 2009 PERSI actuarial report on the Internet while cruising Web sites; he got it in an email from Wayne Hoffman, who obtained it through a request to PERSI. “I just was not digging through actuarial reports - I’m not that weird,” Beck said. “The only person I sent it to was those that asked me, and it was Tom Loertscher and Lynn Luker. … Tom told me that he sent it to other members of the committee itself.”

Republicans on the House State Affairs Committee cited the report today as a reason for suddenly, and without notice, overturning yesterday’s 13-5 vote to kill HCR 42, which seeks to block a scheduled 1 percent cost-of-living increase next month for state retirees; instead, today, in a straight party-line vote, the committee sent the measure to the full House with a recommendation that it pass.

Hoffman, head of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, published an “Idaho Pork Report” at the start of the legislative session that decried PERSI retirement benefits as unduly generous. In an article headed, “Work for the state, retire like a king,” Hoffman wrote, “The question for policy makers is whether taxpayers should be forced to continue to subsidize such a generous employee benefits package at the expense of taxpayers.”