One of the great challenges in undertaking reform of Oregon's Public Employee Retirement System is in grasping simple numbers that, if changed even slightly, signal complex cost shifts.

Economists and statisticians are good at such things. But civilian lawmakers struggle like the rest of us. Yet it is up to the Oregon Legislature this year to configure the terms of PERS in such a way that Oregonians are protected against the consequences of numbers left unattended.

As class size expands and teachers face reductions in number owing to the mounting costs of PERS, the decision to make changes that reduce the rate of employer payments to PERS would have enormous financial impact.

John Tapogna, president of the Portland-based consulting firm ECONorthwest, recently dropped this fact: Each percentage point in payroll deduction achieved through some changes to PERS could account for 325 school teachers statewide or 1.3 school days delivered statewide per year.

This won't be easy. But discussion points such as this are necessary to crack the enormity of a pension system carrying a $22 billion unfunded liability. Left untended, PERS debt will require of Oregonians payments that will push Oregon in the direction of broke.

Nobody wants that. Let's go lawmakers.

146 days to go.

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