CLARIFICATION: North Dakota will be closing its main public pension plan next year. An earlier version of this story did not indicate that several sectors are exempt. (7:04 p.m. CST Feb. 7, 2024)

Starting in 2025, North Dakota will close its main public pension plan for new hires - who will instead be offered a 401k-style benefit.

National researchers say these decisions are likely to create more problems.

The Legislature last year approved switching to a "defined-contribution plan" for future public workers, amid concerns about the size of North Dakota's pension system shortfall.

The National Institute on Retirement Security is out with a new analysis of similar moves made by other states.

The organization's Executive Director - and co-author of the report - Dan Doonan said there's no guarantee of lasting improvements.

"I think a lot of people think of this as like a fresh start, like, 'Oh, what do we want to offer?'" said Doonan. "But the reality is the existing plan will be there for many decades and still have obligations to pay out current workers and retiree benefits."

The report says among the states analyzed, employer costs increased significantly after closing a pension plan.

Doonan pointed to Alaska, with higher turnover for those hired after its pension plans closed because they might feel undervalued.

That state is now debating whether to switch back. Lawmakers supporting North Dakota's move argued it was thoroughly vetted with long-term thinking. While the state is planning to close the main part of its pension plan, workers from several different sectors will not be impacted.

Meanwhile, Doonan and other skeptics said they worry North Dakota will go down the same path as other states in having to deal with unintended consequences.

He encouraged states to be creative in addressing an underfunded pension system without making a controversial switch.

"We see other places where the benefit designs are designed to share some risk with workers and retirees and that helps them keep costs stable but still offer that core benefit employees like," said Doonan, "that makes it common so that when you walk into a school, the first teacher you meet might have twenty years [of] experience."

Doonan added that states with higher employee turnover after a pension plan has closed are essentially paying to train public workers who might leave for another state.

It's unclear if North Dakota lawmakers will revisit the issue on a larger scale anytime soon. The next scheduled regular session is set for early 2025.




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The budget reconciliation bill being considered by the U.S. Senate proposes $863 billion in Medicaid reductions over a decade, with 10.9 million Americans projected to lose coverage by 2034, according to a June 4 Congressional Budget Office report.

In Florida, where 760,000 Medicaid enrollees rely on community health centers, advocates say the cuts would destabilize preventive care and overwhelm hospitals.

Austin Helton, CEO of Brevard Health Alliance, said the cuts would dismantle primary-care access, rupturing what he called Florida's "health-care ecosystem."

"If you cut spending on Medicaid and ACA, which primarily pays for access to primary-care health services at community health centers, that access is gone," he said. "The patients are still going to need that care. They're just going to end up sicker and they're going to end up going to more costly and more complex environments like the emergency room at the hospital."

Helton said the cuts would hit hardest at health-care facilities such as those under Brevard, where 60% to 70% of patients use Medicaid or ACA plans.

While the Florida Policy Institute warns of clinic closures and reduced hours, supporters say the changes target inefficiencies, with House leaders claiming they'll reduce wasteful spending while protecting vulnerable patients.

Florida's community health centers, which serve one in eight Medicaid patients statewide, face what advocates call an impossible math problem: more patients but fewer resources.

"As the population in Florida increases, the number of our patients increase, the number of Medicaid enrollees decreases," said Jonathan Chapman, CEO of the Florida Association of Community Health Centers. "Therefore, by process of elimination, you're going to see more uninsured people on our doorstep."

The Congressional Budget Office projects Florida would lose $7.3 billion in federal Medicaid funds by 2030 under the House plan, with rural counties such as Gadsden and DeSoto facing severe strain. The bill remains stalled in the Senate, where Republicans are divided over many issues, including rural hospital protections.

After the Department of Government Efficiency cut AmeriCorps funding earlier this year, a federal judge last week granted a temporary halt to the cuts on behalf of a group of states that filed a lawsuit against the move. Montana is not on the list.

AmeriCorps is a national service program which has been running for three decades. In the year before the cuts, about 2,800 members, called VISTAs, served at 300 Montana host sites including food banks, schools, youth centers and more.

Rochelle Hesford, executive director of Southwest Montana Youth Partners, relied on AmeriCorps service in the group's five-year plan. But its VISTA member was on board for less than four months before funding was cut.

"We're in kind of that early critical stage where we really need to get that public support and get our name out there and build capacity for the organization," Hesford observed. "We're losing, like, a year's worth of work, I would say."

Two dozen states plus Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration arguing it did not provide sufficient notice or comment period according to law but because Montana was not a plaintiff, its AmeriCorps funding remains cut.

Groups hosting VISTA members pay about one-third of their income and AmeriCorps funding covers the rest.

Erin Switalski, senior program director for the Headwaters Foundation, which provides grants for groups across the state, said it is a big leg up for many Montana groups.

"We're a resource-scarce state in many ways, and AmeriCorps VISTAs can really come in and help organizations build new systems and find efficiencies," Switalski explained. "Losing that support is really critical."

Montana's population is one of the least dense in the country but it has the most nonprofits per capita, nearly 10 per every 1,000 residents, according to the Tax Foundation.

Switalski noted she worries cuts to AmeriCorps signal something bigger.

"It's tied to this broader trend that we're seeing in really just a gutting of civic infrastructure that helps hold our communities together in Montana," Switalski added.

The federal budget proposal now being hashed out in Congress would significantly reduce funding for programs aiming to prevent domestic violence and assault, and help support survivors.

Ohio groups are raising concerns about how the cuts could affect services across the state. The budget reconciliation bill now in the U.S. Senate includes a $200 million cut to grant programs under the Violence Against Women Act.

Maria York, policy director for the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, said the funding supports core services, such as legal assistance and victim advocacy.

"It eliminates millions of dollars in crime victim services funding," York pointed out. "The biggest grants that we were looking at is the Violence Against Women grants; a reduction in the VAWA grant funding means that these services would be cut from the shelters in Ohio."

The proposed budget also calls for consolidating the Office on Violence Against Women into the Office of Justice Programs, a move some advocates said conflicts with current federal law and could affect grant administration.

York noted Ohio reports higher rates of victimization than many other states. She pointed to a recent study estimating the economic cost of domestic violence in Ohio at $1.2 billion annually.

"When we're using these federal dollars it's actually, in the long run, saving money for Ohioans," York contended.

Ohio advocates are encouraging residents to contact members of Congress ahead of a National Day of Action on June 10, urging them to maintain and strengthen funding for victim services.