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My mother has breast cancer and is putting her affairs in order as the outlook is grim.  She retired from State public service and has lived off her meager PERS pension and just recently began receiving Social Security.  She had no savings when she retired because her salary only allowed her to meet her expenses each month.  After she retired and had received her PERS pension for several years, she got a notice from PERS telling her they had decided in retrospect that they had overpaid many retirees and that she owed them thousands of dollars.  She told me the other day this has been bouncing around in various courts for years and she doesn't know how it is going to turn out and that it won't be decided until after she's gone.  This has her very upset and therefore I am very upset, too.

Then I read the article in the Oregonian about a week ago that made public employees look like robbers because of their retirement benefits.  I remember reading another very similar article in the Oregonian not too long ago.  That made me absolutely sick.  I am beginning to think the paper is trying to make people hate this State's government and its public employees in general.

posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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