Please know that if you support this attack on our right to manage our own finances, we will devote our efforts to voting you out of office.

Dean Dennis addressed the STRS Ohio Retirement Board on September 18, 2025.

ORTA wants to publicly thank OFT, OEA, and the OC- AAUP for their collaboration and leadership in the filing of the lawsuit that sought to minimize the voices of our members.

We understand that the vast majority of legislators had no idea that the middle-of-the-night amendment to change the makeup of our Board was even in the annual budget bill. However, now that legislators are aware, please know that if you support this attack on our right to manage our own finances, we will devote our efforts to voting you out of office.

Now, let’s clarify what our elected board members have achieved over the last couple of years. They have completely revamped opaque and misleading Benchmarks that governed investment staff performance bonuses into transparent Benchmarks that are tied to indices. They have worked with our actuary, Cheiron, and developed a responsible three-tier Sustainable Benefit Plan to restore benefits. This plan accounts for shocks to the market and takes into account market recovery time. It is likely the most sophisticated benefit plan of Ohio’s five pension plans.

Speaking of which, our pension plan is the closest to being fully funded of any of the five pension plans. There’s an old saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Now, here is what is broken: the Ohio legislature. They fail to fund our pension system adequately while diverting money away from public education. I’ll share that recently, ORTA didn’t publish two press editorials due to misleading information; the editorials conveniently ignored one of the main problems, which is the lack of funding. Instead, the editorials attempted to alarm the public by stating their property taxes could increase if an Employer Contribution rate were enacted, blaming the need solely on reckless STRS mismanagement. ORTA disagreed with this singular narrative, as our board has moved towards more transparency and investment accountability. The numbers speak for themselves: STRS pays out nearly $8 billion in benefits but takes in $4 billion in contributions. This puts too much strain on investments.

While we’re on the topic of transparency, the Board’s consultants are consistently telling the STRS board, the STRS staff, and STRS members that the main problem is the Ohio Legislature. Simply put, Ohio legislators are, and have been, underfunding the pension system.

However, it seems lately that when someone speaks truth to power in Ohio, Ohio’s power brokers pull out the artillery and try to silence them. A message to Ohio’s legislators: don’t underestimate the power of the voting booth.