State pension funds allow for 13th check

State pension funds allow for 13th check | Lansing State Journal | lansingstatejournal.com
State laws that provide for — and in certain circumstances require — payment of the 13th check remain on the books.
Michigan’s Office of Retirement Services has not paid such a bonus to state government retirees since 2001 or to school retirees since 2002 and “does not expect to issue a 13th check in the foreseeable future,” said Kurt Weiss, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Technology, Management and Budget.
However, “there are no active plans right now to amend or repeal the legislation” providing for the 13th checks, Weiss told the Detroit Free Press.
That’s a mistake, even if relatively few retirees are eligible to receive the checks if and when they are issued, said Steve Harry of Lansing, a former employee of the Office of Retirement Systems who writes a blog about public policy issues and has researched the 13th check issue.
“It’s a crazy idea: 
Pensioners get a bonus when a strong stock market results in big gains for the pension fund, but they don’t suffer when stocks are down,” Harry said. 
“It is a great deal for them — not so great for the taxpayers who are forced to make up the difference when those pension funds are short.”
The state “should make it clear that there’s nothing like that any more — at all.”