(Radio Iowa) – Lawmakers who lead the panel that reviews the pension systems for public employees say there’s no appetite in the Iowa legislature to make immediate changes in pension plans, but they aren’t ruling out at least studying changes. Republican Senator Tim Kraayenbrink of Fort Dodge says the governor’s DOGE task force created a lot of chatter when it raised the idea of giving new employees the option of a pension or a 401-K style investment plan.

“I think everybody can understand, is smart enough to know that they’re not a group that makes law,” Kraayenbrink said. But Kraayenbrink — who is an investment advisor — says lawmakers should not rule out at least studying changes. “Does that mean we’re going to do it? I mean, no,” Kraayenbrink said. “I don’t have the appetite to do it.” Representative Charley Thomson of Charles City says it would take years of study before any changes would be implemented.

“And buy in all by sorts of stakeholders in the system before they’d even be seriously considered,” Thomson said. The legislature’s Public Retirement Systems Committee is meeting today (Tuesday) and hearing reports from pension system managers. Kris Rowley — the Dickinson County Treasurer — is vice chair of the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System or IPERS Investment Board. Rowley says she hopes legislators keep IPERS as it is.

“401(k)s can be wonderful, but as you know the market can go up and down. I’m old enough I’ve lived through several of those good old market crashes, so to speak…Pension plans are much more stable. This is a very well funded pension plan,” she told lawmakers. Matt Carver, an attorney with the School Administrators of Iowa, is chair of the IPERS Benefits Advisory Committee. He says the governor’s DOGE committee created quite a stir by discussing changes in IPERS benefits.

“And I’m not here to shoot arrows at the DOGE committee,” he said. “I think they were just doing their best to come up with ideas of, well, where can be save some money and that happened to be one of those.” Carver is thanking Iowa House and Senate leaders who issued statements this fall saying the 2026 legislature would not vote to make changes in IPERS. One of out of every 10 Iowans is a member of IPERS and their pension is guaranteed for life. The system ranks among the top 10 state-run pension systems in the country. There are other pension systems for public employees in Iowa like judges and court system employees, peace officers and fire fighters.