New Hampshire: The Real Facts

Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Keene Sentinel
Retirement issues resolved: You lost, by Anne-Marie Irwin

Dennis Kinnan was apparently still asleep when I called him at 6:30 a.m. So I left a voice mail telling him I was on my way to the gym and would be having yogurt and orange juice for breakfast when I got back. I also called him to say I had finished folding the laundry and was taking my golden retriever, Alice, to the vet for a checkup. And I called him in the afternoon to say that my husband and I were thinking of going to the Chinese restaurant to have lemon chicken for dinner.

I've been trying to keep Dennis aware of my comings and goings to save him the trouble of following me. He's a retired state employee from the Department of Corrections who now works for the state employee union - the State Employees Association or SEA. And he's been following me around Concord and then e-mailing my activities to the several thousand members of his union. I don't know whether following me is his idea or part of his job with the SEA.

What I do know is that the SEA and the other public employee unions are really mad at me for siding with the taxpayers in the battle over reform of their pension system. The New Hampshire Retirement System is a mess. It's $2.7 billion in the hole, has been bleeding red ink for years, and is in the worst shape of almost all the state retirement systems in the country.

So my N.H. House committee worked through legislation that over a period of years and decades would restore the system to health. The full House overwhelmingly went along with our changes and sent the bill to the Senate. The Senate gutted most of our reforms and sent the bill to a committee of conference to resolve the differences between the Senate and House versions.