SERS urged to cut travel budget further

State lawmakers are insisting that the School Employees Retirement System board shave an additional $18,000 a year off of its travel budget, saying recently-passed self restrictions do not go far enough.Silk road tours The board set the limit at $8,000 per member last month in response to a controversy surrounding a planned trip to a conference in Hawaii using retirees' money.At the meeting, the council asked the Highway Patrol Retirement System board to adopt the same policy. The HPRS board currently does not have travel limits, although it spends less than other pension boards. Keith Brainard, research director for the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, agreed that figure is common across the nation. And Jason Seligman, silk road culture tour an assistant OSU professor who moderated yesterday's panel at the Riffe Center, said the Center for State and Local Government Excellence also uses a figure of about 8 percent.

"Remember the background,"Rep. Kirk Schuring, R-Canton, told fellow council members. "There was a change in their travel policy based upon the concerns of not just this council, but the public at large.”Lisa Morris, the executive director for SERS, said board members tend to need more education because most do not have college degrees.The controversy began in March, when three board members were planning to use retirees' money for a conference in Honolulu. All three dropped out of the conference,china tour packages and one has resigned citing health problems.Meanwhile, a trio of pension experts on a panel put together by Ohio State University's John Glenn School of Public Affairs said the state pension funds' assumed annual rate of investment return  about 8 percent  is realistic. State Treasurer Josh Mandel called the assumption into question last week, saying the pension funds are built on a "house of cards"that endanger the retirement funds of current and former state workers."It's consistent with very long-term trends, which is what the pension funds are concerned about,"said Ron Snell, former director of state services for the National Conference of State Legislatures.