PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP - Speaker of the House Tina Kotek

House Speaker Tina Kotek pushed back on state business leaders’ demand for state pension reform Dec. 5 by noting that the Public Employees Retirement System is but one of the state’s spending drivers.

“One of the things, just a factoid, that I want to share today is if we were to fund all of the ballot measures that were passed this last month — all three of those: CTE (career technical education), outdoor school, the lottery measure for veterans’ services — the total of money we would need to cover all of those is actually more of a budget impact than the pension costs in the next biennium,” Kotek said, during the Oregon Leadership Summit Dec. 5 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

Supporters of the ballot measures expressed immediate skepticism about Kotek’s assertion Dec. 5.

Figures from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Office, however, show that the ballot measures together will cost more in 2017-19 than the increase in expenses for the Public Employees Retirement System.

The projected total cost of ballot measures 96, 98 and 99 is $377 million, compared with a PERS cost increase of about $340 million, said Ken Rocco, legislative fiscal officer at the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Office.

Even though voters approved the three ballot measures, legislators do not have to follow their will. All three ballot measures were statutory changes, rather than constitutional amendments, meaning that lawmakers and the governor can adjust the requirements of the measures, such as Measure 98’s requirement that the state spend $800 per high school student on career technical education, dropout prevention and college prep.

Business leaders used the Dec. 5 leadership summit to offer policymakers and public unions a deal: Reform state pensions in exchange for higher business taxes.

Pension reform could alienate public unions who have helped to fund the campaigns of Kotek, Gov. Kate Brown and other powerful public officials.