RCW 41.45.010: Intent—Goals. (Effective until June 30, 2029.)

It is the intent of the legislature to provide a dependable and systematic process for funding the benefits provided to members and retirees of the public employees' retirement system, chapter 41.40 RCW; the teachers' retirement system, chapter 41.32 RCW; the law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement systems, chapter 41.26 RCW; the school employees' retirement system, chapter 41.35 RCW; the public safety employees' retirement system, chapter 41.37 RCW; and the Washington state patrol retirement system, chapter 43.43 RCW.

The funding process established by this chapter is intended to achieve the following goals:

(1) To fully fund the public employees' retirement system plans 2 and 3, the teachers' retirement system plans 2 and 3, the school employees' retirement system plans 2 and 3, the public safety employees' retirement system plan 2, and the law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system plan 2 as provided by law;

(2) To fully amortize the total costs of the law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system plan 1, not later than June 30, 2024;

(3) To fully amortize the unfunded actuarial accrued liability in the public employees' retirement system plan 1 and the teachers' retirement system plan 1 within a rolling ten-year period, using methods and assumptions that balance needs for increased benefit security, decreased contribution rate volatility, and affordability of pension contribution rates, while suspending those rates during the 2025-2027 and 2027-2029 fiscal biennia;

(4) To amortize the costs of benefit improvements in the public employees' retirement system plan 1 and the teachers' retirement system plan 1 over a fixed 15-year period;

(5) To establish long-term employer contribution rates which will remain a relatively predictable proportion of the future state budgets; and

(6) To fund, to the extent feasible, all benefits for plan 2 and 3 members over the working lives of those members so that the cost of those benefits are paid by the taxpayers who receive the benefit of those members' service.