The Committee

In response to the growing concern about the fiscal integrity of Missouri’s public employee retirement systems (PERS) in 1983 the First Regular Session of the 82nd General Assembly passed legislation creating a permanent pension review and oversight body, the Joint Committee on Public Employee Retirement (JCPER). Prior to the creation of the committee there was no one place where information concerning these plans was gathered, analyzed and recorded. The committee consists of six senators appointed by the President Pro Tem of the Senate and six members of the House of Representatives, appointed by the Speaker of the House. The JCPER governing statutes require that the committee shall:

• • Make a continuing study and analysis of all state and local government retirement systems and report annually to the General Assembly;

• • Devise a standard reporting system to obtain data on each public employee retirement system that will provide information on each system’s financial and actuarial status at least biennially;

• • Determine from its study and analysis the need for changes in statutory law;

• • Make any other recommendations to the General Assembly necessary to provide adequate retirement benefits to state and local government employees within the ability of taxpayers to support their future costs.