State Government State Judge Rules 3 Percent State Workers Contributions Unconstitutional

BRADENTON -- A Florida law passed in 2011 requiring state employees participating in the $114 billion Florida Retirement System to contribute 3 percent of their pay to the plan was struck down Tuesday by a state court judge.

2nd Judicial Circuit Court Judge Jackie L. Fulford ruled that some provisions of the bill are unconstitutional. According to her ruling, because the state legislature created the mandatory pension plan for state employees in 1974, requiring no contributions that ”the rights to the members in the non-contributory pension plan were of a Ôcontractual nature,’" and that "such rights shall be legally enforceable as valid contract rights and shall not be abridged in any way.“

Judge Fulford stated in the ruling that the law constitutes ”an unconstitutional impairment of plaintiffs’ contract with the State of Florida, an unconstitutional taking of private property.“

”As you would expect, I believe this decision is simply wrong,“ Governor Rick Scott said in a statement. ”The trial judge has ignored 30 years of Supreme Court precedent in a decision that refuses to allow Florida to have common-sense pension reform. This is another example of a court substituting its own policy preferences for those of the Legislature.“

Opponents of the original legislation saw it differently.

"I am happy to hear that Circuit Court Judge Jackie Fulford ruled for the employees who give so much to the State of Florida," said Rep. Janet Cruz (D-Tampa). "When the law was enacted to take the three percent from those who keep our state running each day, I was outraged that we could once again take the money from underpaid employees who  are already struggling during these difficult economic times."

"This legislature should obey the ruling, respect our system of government and not further challenge this issue,“ said Darryl Rouson (D-St. Pete). ”The state should stop the bleeding of our good government employees. They have not received a raise since 2006 and over the last year we have effectively taxed them at three percent.  If tax cuts are always good for business, they should always be good for our state employees, our teachers and our firefighters."

No word yet on whether the state will appeal the decision, which will likely cost billions of dollars, most of which has already been spent -- some of which was given back to municipalities to help plug holes in their budget gaps. Manatee County used some of the rebated funds to give employees one-time $1,000 "supplementary compensation" payments in lieu of not having had raises in several years, then effectively taking a pay cut at the hands of the contributions. The contributions were also a major impasse in efforts to craft a county school district budget, as board members tried to balance the need to make cuts with the hit teachers were already taking in the form of the contributions.