New Poll Shows Broad Support for Pension Reform

A new poll from EngageRI, a coalition of businesses, trade asscoations, and social services agencies, finds three-quarters of Rhode Island voters support pension reform along the lines that Treasurer Gina Raimondo has been pushing.

The poll, conducted September 7-10, found 73 percent strongly or somewhat supporting a plan described as follows:

One potential pension reform plan would increase the state employee retirement age to 67 and reduce the amount each year of service adds to an employee’s pension. It would also suspend cost of living increases for both current employees and future retirees until the pension fund is financially sound and include a provision to reduce future cost of living increases during times when the fund is in financial danger.

Sixty-one percent of union households, according to the poll, support reform. And the survey suggests Rhode Island voters are paying attention to the issue, with eight in 10 saying they had recently read or heard something about the state's pension system.

Sixty-four percent of voters said the pension trouble amounts to a "serious crisis" that must be addressed now, with just 31 percent agreeing that the pension system should not be tampered with in the midst of a recession, with retirees struggling to make ends meet. 

The survey, of 450 likely voters in the 2012 general election, has a margin of error of +/- 4.6 percent.

These polls, commissioned by interested parties, always need to be taken with a grain of salt. But it's no great surprise that there is broad public support for an overhaul. The question is whether that public will be engaged, enough, to make a real impact with labor pushing hard to contain the cuts.