Her bill would create a joint legislative commission to study solutions to the growing issue, including private retirement plan options that are low-cost to employers and public-private programs assisted by state funds.
At a Statehouse press conference announcing the bill, Associate Director of AARP Ohio Amy Milam said a solution now will save the state money in the future.
“Ohio is facing a retirement savings crisis that will leave far too many residents barely able to afford their basic needs in their later years,” she said.
Milam noted that many Ohioans don’t have access to a retirement plan and, if the state does nothing, will incur an estimated cost of over $11 billion in lost tax revenue and expenditures on government assistance.
The AARP, along with the majority of over 600 small business owners that the organization recently surveyed, would support a “public-private retirement savings option,” Milam said.
As she described it, that state-assisted retirement program would require an unspecified amount of investment from Ohio to get started. Once set up, it would come at no cost to the employers and would directly take contributions out of workers’ paychecks, should they choose to opt in.
Milam said that the program would eventually become self-sufficient with no need for further investment from the state, as it has in the 19 other states.
The bill, known as House Bill 501, is expected to soon be deliberated in the House Pensions Committee.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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