Bert Caldwell does a nice job in the Spokesman-Review of catching up on the move to assure full funding of state pensions.

Washington state Treasurer James McIntire last week followed through on a pledge made last fall: He and a bipartisan group of sponsors submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to the Legislature that would assure full funding of state pensions.

If adopted, Washington’s Constitution will impose a degree of fiscal discipline on lawmakers that they have been unwilling to impose on themselves.

In our Thrive Washington report, Nine Steps to Budget Sustainability, we similarly flagged pension reform as a high priority, making these recommendations:

• Amend the State Constitution to require legislative supermajority approval to make less than the actuarially-required payment…

• Follow the model required of private sector plans to ensure benefit improvements are sustainable. Federal law prohibits private sector pension plans from increasing benefits if the plan’s funded ratio would be less than 80 percent with the benefit improvement, unless the employer immediately contributes the full actuarial value of benefit improvement to the pension fund. Both TRS & PERS 1 are currently below 80 percent funding.

• Create a defined contribution plan for all new employees.

As Caldwell notes, the constitutional amendment is not the only pending legislative recommendation:

Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed another, partial solution to the pension problem: eliminate cost-of-living increases in monthly checks.

That’s a good idea, too. Washington is in relatively good shape – relative to a lot of states facing deep pension crises. The current legislative and executive interest in getting ahead of the problem (or at least not falling further behind) is welcome.