Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Pensions! We have gathered the best stories about pensions and retirement security from the previous week. This is the news you need to know in the fight for a secure retirement.
Iowa Legislators Move to Protect IPERS
In mid 2025, the Iowa Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Task Force recommended offering new members of the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System 401(k)s instead of pensions when it handed a list of “cost-cutting” recommendations to Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. The task force’s suggestion was met with swift resistance from the public and from key lawmakers in the Hawkeye state, and now some legislators are planning to take a step toward preserving IPERS for future employees.
This week, Iowa House Democrats announced a plan to propose a constitutional amendment during the 2026 legislative session to prevent the erosion of pension benefits for public employees. Senate Majority Leader Janice Weiner discussed the reasoning behind the amendment proposal, saying, “I keep hearing from Republican colleagues, ‘They don’t have the appetite for it this year… So my question is, does that mean they’ll have the appetite for it next year, or the year after that? IPERS is a well-run system. It is essential for recruiting and retaining employees for the state of Iowa, for our correctional system, for our law enforcement, our teachers, and we should not meddle with it, period.”
Pension Reform Main Priority for NYC Educators
Educators in New York state are organizing to overturn a 2012 pension reform law that created a 6th system tier of retirement, increasing the minimum retirement age from 55 to 63. The plan redesign has become a point of contention for educators and other state and municipal workers affected by the change.
Kristin DeFendis, a sixth-grade teacher in New York City, spoke on the driving factors behind the movement. “It’s a very taxing and tolling job. We do love it. I love what I do, but at the same time, we deserve to have a little dignity and respect in terms of collecting our pensions,” she said. “Our theme is to ‘Fix Tier 6 in 2026.’ We have a lot of members in Tier 6, so what we’re doing is on the 6th of every month, we’re doing something to bring awareness to this.”
Organizers are hoping for a big turnout at a planned March 8 rally in Albany, which will include other unions representing municipal employees impacted by the Tier 6 plan reform. “We’ve had more camaraderie surrounding Tier 6 than ever before. And I truly believe that March 8th visit to Albany is where we’re really going to be the most powerful and we’re going to be heard by the state,” DeFendis said.
Mississippi Approves Extra Payment to Shore Up Pension Funds
On the first day of Mississippi’s 2026 legislative session, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved moving $500 million from the state’s current surplus into Mississippi’s Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS), in addition to injecting $50 million a year over the next decade into the underfunded system.
The measure, which passed out of committee without opposition, would put at least $1 billion into PERS over the next decade. The funding boost follows last year’s vote to reduce benefits for newly hired public employees by moving them from a traditional pension system to a hybrid defined contribution plan.
Critics argue the hybrid plan will hinder the state’s ability to recruit and retain workers, especially teachers and first responders. Union leaders for public safety workers are urging lawmakers to create a separate retirement system specifically for first responders.
Reason Foundation Publishes More Baseless Claims
This week, pension opponents at the Reason Foundation published an article that falsely claims public pension reforms, such as converting employees to defined contribution (DC) retirement plans, have no negative financial impact on employees, pension systems, or local economies.
The article scrutinizes research from the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS). The 2024 NCPERS report, The Hidden Costs of Pension Reform: Rising Income Inequality, Lagging Economic Growth, examines the relationship between income inequality and economic growth and pension reforms, such as benefit reductions, creating plan tiers, or plan closures. The research concludes that “at the national level, income inequality is inversely correlated with the shift from DB plans to DC plans.”
The Reason Foundation, a well-known pension opponent, regularly presents convoluted numbers as research both in the media and in testimony to state lawmakers. Backed by billionaires and Wall Street, who rely on the dismantling of public benefits to grow their fortunes, they are not looking out for the best interests of American workers.
Click here to watch the original NCPERS presentation of the 2024 report.
Be sure to check back next Friday for the latest news in the fight for a secure retirement! For now, sign up for NPPC News Clips to receive daily pension news from across the country directly to your inbox.