The Taxpayers United of America (TUA) asked  Ohio Gov. John Kasich and the Ohio General Assembly to release public employee pension information in the name of transparency last week. The group released their own pension estimates for state and local government employees. Ohio does not release pension information because the state regards it as personal information under the state's Open Records Act.

In a 2010 report by Cincinnati.com, nearly 400,000 public retirees receive benefits from the state's five-pension system. Ohio taxpayers pay more than $4 billion a year toward those benefits. An investigation by the news outlet showed that a growing number of pensions were now in excess of $100,000 annually. However, the average annual pension benefits ranged from $10,552 to $38,555, according to the pension systems' financial reports.

Abuse by pension receivers is nothing new. In Ohio, pensions are awarded based on the highest three years of salary. Some pensioners will put in overtime or receive other forms of compensation to boost their salaries as they near retirement. Others will take high paying positions toward the end of their career. "Double-dippers," pensioners who retire but go back into public service to receive both a paycheck and a pension, are also common. State pension officials estimate that nearly one in 10 public pensioner is a "double-dipper."

Public officials have expressed concern for a lack of transparency of public employee pensions. State Representative Matt Lundy commented on the issue, ''You can't make a tough decision if you don't have all the information.'' He noted that he was unaware that the financial data is not available to the public and continued, ''It's not a taxpayer friendly system."

Some pension board leaders also agree that transparency would be in the public's interest. William Estabrook, executive director of the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund, said he has had his salary available to the public for his entire career, so his pension being made public would not a big deal.

Estabrook also said that the Police & Fire Pension Fund looks for potential fraud. In 2009, the pension board approved a measure to ban spiking in the final three years of employment. Other internal controls for potential abuse include monitoring the salaries of current members for unusual jumps in salaries and internal auditors conducting periodic reviews of individual benefit cases to make sure payments are accurate

The TUA's call for the state government to make pension transparency reforms was a much needed one. Ohioans deserve to know where and how their tax dollars are being spent. The pension funds should be commended for their efforts to detect and avert fraud from pensioners, but the most effective way of preventing this abuse would be constant public scrutiny. The only way for this to occur is if lawmakers Columbus takes down the smoke screen and allows the public access to public employee pension data.  

Another concern for the group is the burden the pension system is placing on the state budget and taxpayers. State unfunded pension liability estimates range from a conservative $58 billion to a more realistic $188 billion. Both estimates place Ohio as the 48^th worst state when it comes to the amount owed to pay its pension obligations.

"The system will collapse," said Raeann McNeilly of TUA. "There will be no money in the system for hardworking people who have looked forward their whole lives to living off the benefits they were promised. They just won't be there."

To remedy the pension crisis, the group urged the state to end defined benefit pensions for new hires and increase contributions for employee pensions and healthcare premiums. 

The group has made its stance. Now, it is up to the state to respond.

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