Under the Golden Dome, too Republicans support IPERS

Upmeyer Column: Over the last several weeks, I have seen a lot of misinfor-mation spread across Iowa regarding the Iowa Public Em-ployee Retirement System (IP-ERS). Unfortunately, Demo-crats are crisscrossing the state, holding meetings and panicking IPERS members that their pensions will be cut or eliminated altogether. This is absurd and the worst kind of politics.
I would like to set the rec-ord straight… There are no planned changes to IPERS or any other public pension sys-tem. We will continue to keep our promise to IPERS mem-bers. IPERS members are in no danger of losing their pen-sions.
IPERS is well-managed, financially stable, and one of the best pension systems in the entire country. Changes are unnecessary.
In fact, the roaring econo-mies that have resulted from Republican policies at both the state and national levels have only further strengthened IP-ERS and made it more secure for years to come.
We must always be vigilant to ensure IPERS remains sus-tainable for the long-term. That means listening to recom-mendations from the IPERS board and IPERS members, which we have been doing for decades.
IPERS members have dedi-cated years of their life to pub-lic service and paid into the system. These are our friends, family, and neighbors. We value the service and the dec-ades of work they put into our communities. We will continue to keep our promise to them.
The rumors and fear mon-gering being spread by Demo-crats are 100 percent false. Unfortunately, we’ve seen them use this playbook before. It’s the same strategy that they used before the last legislative session, yet IPERS remained unchanged.
Democrats should be honest with Iowans and stop with the election year scare tactics. I hope that by putting the facts and this message out there, it puts to rest any ru-mors that changes are coming to IPERS, because it is simply untrue.