The Rhode Island Superior Court on Feb. 28 rejected a motion by the state to delay the start of a suit challenging its landmark 2011 pension law as unconstitutional.
Judge Sarah Taft-Carter's ruling in Newport means that jury selection will begin on April 20, unless the state and plaintiff unions representing employee and retirees settle.
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo and other state officials wanted to delay the trial start to January 2016 to allow for preparation time. Attorneys for several unions had agreed to the motion.
Taft-Carter the previous day granted the state's request for a single trial on as many as nine complaints by five employee unions. "All of the plaintiffs' constitutional claims largely depend on the same evidence," Taft-Carter wrote. "A failure to consolidate these cases would result in duplicative and unnecessary additional trials."
The 2011 law, which passed after heated debate, reduced benefits for active participants in the $8 billion Employees' Retirement System of Rhode Island by shifting them to a hybrid system combining defined-benefit and defined-contribution plans, and limiting cost of living adjustments for retirees, among other changes.
Rhode Island said at the time that it expected to reduce its unfunded liability from $4.4 billion to $2.7 billion and lower its annual contribution from $305 million to $177 million.
Bond rating agencies called the law a credit positive. Moody's Investors Service rates the state's general obligation bonds Aa2. Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's rate them AA.
