In today’s Seattle Times, State Treasurer Jim McInitire makes his case for rejecting proposals to place younger and newly-employed state workers in defined contribution pension plans, similar to the 401k programs common in the private sector. Basically, his argument amounts to a variation on “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” a sentiment I generally agree with, and not just because I’m not handy around the house.

After recounting some of the strengths of Washington’s existing pension plans, among the healthiest in the nation (not a high bar to clear, but Washington does clear it by a high margin), McIntire concludes:

We have a highly successful investment fund that pays for 84 percent of pension benefits and returns $2 billion each year to the state. We provide modest and predictable benefits for public employees that the Legislature has helped keep in check over the years. This works well for public employees and for taxpayers, so why make an expensive mess by trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist?

I agree that we don’t have an urgent pension problem, certainly not by national standards. And the state does a good job with investments. But as we’ve written before, over time it makes sense to change the plans to establish more parity with the private sector and acknowledge that the workforce of tomorrow will be more mobile, something portable DC plans help facilitate. The treasurer provides a useful discussion of state investment policy and returns; I’d also refer you to this Seattle Times piece we noted favorably earlier this month.

Besides, keeping benefits in check hasn’t been all that successful, as demonstrated by lawsuits over gainsharing and pension COLAs. (For more on the clunkily-named gainsharing program, see this WRC brief.) As this excellent post at The Quick & the Ed points out, there’s a natural political incentive to do the wrong thing in good times.

During flush years, [policy makers] should hesitate from making hasty benefit enhancements or temporarily pausing state or employer contributions.

More at this post.