'Fixing' for fixing's sake?

Here's a common sense move that directly counters one of the more ridiculous proposals from Gov. Sonny Perdue in recent memory (and, given the 'Go Fish' program, that's saying a lot). Perdue wanted to completely overhaul the funding of COLAs in the Teacher's Retirement System despite the fact that it's one of the most - if not the most - fiscally sound pension system in the state.

Perdue's proposal would have subjected the COLAs to annual approval by the governing board, which made little sense. His rationale to do was to bring it into line with other state government retirement programs ... which would be fine and dandy if it was a program that was in a world of hurting. However, the teachers willingly opted to pay more into the program during their professional career to ensure its long-term vitality.

As for the notion that there could be an effort to manage these investments more wisely, that doesn't make any sense. TRS has a diverse investment porfolio that plans for the long-term and was had a valuation of close to 90 percent, which is well above the threshhold to be considered fiscally sound.

I honestly can't begin to process why Perdue would want to change this system as even Republicans - including one of his floor leaders in Sen. Bill Cowsert - ran as far away from this idea as they could.