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A plan to overhaul Florida’s retirement system ended with lawmakers making no changes this year.   Politics got in the way of a needed fix to a broken local pension system, and tried to repair the state pension system many say doesn’t need fixing.

Lawmakers spent most of the 2014 legislative session going back and forth on a state pension overhaul.  But it was a needed municipal pension bill that got caught up in the mix.

“I’m not sure there’s a financial expert in the world that would sound the alarms on the FRS. Everyone would sound the alarms on the local pensions,” said Sen. Jeremy Ring (D-Margate) who sponsored the local pension bill.

The Florida Retirement System for teachers, firefighters and state workers is about 87 percent funded. It is considered one of the strongest in the country.  But some local pension plans covering police and fire departments are in bad shape. Some are 60 to 70 percent short.

“As I’ve said all along, the real crisis in the state is the municipal crisis. Look at cities like Detroit, you can’t compare that to the FRS because that’s a municipal plan,” said Sen. Ring.

The city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy in large part due getting behind on local pension payouts.  Cities in Florida aren’t there…yet.  A municipal bill would have freed up cash for local governments to continue paying retirees.

The House Speaker combined the state pension overhaul with the local one. That’s when both bills died.

Florida’s League of Cities was disappointed.

“What happened? Well politics happened. It basically just got caught up in the process. The House bill was available in the Senate and the Senate bill was available in the House,” said Scott Dudley with the League.

Lawmakers said they’ll keep pushing for a statewide overhaul.

“There was absolutely nothing that failed to pass that was a priority of Speaker Weatherford’s or mine other than the pension issue, and we’ll come back to that next year,” said Senate President Don Gaetz following the end of session.

Part of the reasons state pensions are fully funded: lawmakers borrowing from it in good years and not contributing during the bad ones.

Legislation passed in 1999 requires local governments to take insurance premium taxes and spend it on extra benefits and not on the local police and fire pension plans. Some say that’s the problem and it’s not sustainable.