Board of Commissioners Looking to Make Changes in the MERS Plan

Houghton County’s Municipal Employees Retirement System, better known as MERS, might be getting a makeover really soon. Houghton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Scott Ala, who has been an opponent of the system for a long time, says the numbers are just too down to overcome.

Ala says he met with County Controller Eric Forsberg who agrees that the county must begin to look into making a change. Forsberg says making the recommended payments and still being in the red proves that this system just isn’t working.

So what is the solution? Both Ala and Forsberg say the county should keep MERS and just move from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. Ala adds that he would hope that county employees from the different departments would assemble a small board to analyze the MERS report and hold the board of commissioner’s more accountable for the solvency of MERS.