A deal in the legal battle over the state’s 2011 landmark public pension system overhaul was unveiled in court yesterday, affecting about 59,000 past and present state employees, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Frank Williams, a retired Rhode Island Supreme Court chief justice who worked to broker a settlement, said that most of the retirees and public unions suing the state had accepted the terms. Gov. Gina Raimondo said that the settlement provides certainty for public employees and for municipalities, locks in 90 percent of the savings from the pension reform and resolves six of nine lawsuits against the state. The deal, however, doesn't end years of legal wrangling over the higher retirement ages and cuts to cost-of-living increases that were designed to save the state $4 billion over 20 years. The parties have to be notified and the settlement has to be formally approved by the judge. The pension reform was done legislatively, so the settlement terms have to be incorporated into the law and approved by the General Assembly.
