Ask five different people about the House Finance Committee’s pension reform proposal and you’ll likely get five different opinions.

The plan is expected to gain approval as part of the General Assembly’s 2010 budget plan sometime in the next week. The reform plan creates a sliding scale in which, state employees and teachers with the least amount of tenure will become eligible for retirement at age 62. Those closest to retirement will still be eligible to retire at the age they expected.

The plan also ties the cost of living adjustments to the consumer price index (inflation).

Expected 2010 Gubernatorial candidate and General Treasurer Frank Caprio, charged with stewarding the state’s pension plan, thinks the reforms will adequately protect taxpayers and employees by creating a more stable plan going forward.

“The proposed changes are material changes. To say anything other than that does not fairly represent the level of changes that have been made,” said Caprio.

Caprio served on the legislative committee to study the state pension plan and make recommended changes. That committee recommended stiffer cost savings measures for taxpayers, including moving the retirement age up to 65 for all employees.

“Like any good negotiation, nobody should be walking away perfectly satisfied,” said Caprio.

“But it will become a sustainable plan that matches up with what’s offered in other states around us.”

The legislature’s proposed changes to the pension plan will save taxpayers $1 billion over the next 19 years, Caprio said.

That’s not to say that Caprio agrees with everything contained in the House Finance Committee’s budget, which the full House debated yesterday. Caprio takes issue with the use close to one- quarter billion in federal stimulus finds to balance the budget. Instead, Caprio said the legislature should have developed a plan to implement regionalization of government services and a more streamlined delivery of government.

“There have been a lot of tough decisions that have been made, and I applaud the legislature for that. But there are other things that have been pushed off for another day,” said Caprio.

Michael Downey, the President of Council 94 of the AFL-CIO, which represents the largest group of state workers, said that the so-called tough decisions, such as pension reform, are merely bad decisions.

“We will definitely be going to court. That’s a fact. I’m not trying to scare anybody, but I’m not going to let people that worked here for two weeks or 20 years have their pension plans changed,” said Downey.

“When they took their jobs, they took it with the understanding that they would be receiving those pension plans.”

Downey takes issue with the fact that pension reform for judges only applies to new ones, but almost all state workers and teachers will be affected by the reforms.

“At the very least, we would think we’d be treated with the same dignity and respect as judges. What makes a judge inherently better than any other employee?” Said Downey.

Downey also points out that Rhode Island state workers contribute amongst the highest amount to their pension plan in the nation.

Governor Donald Carcieri is opposed to the pension reform for much different reasons than Downey. Carcieri doesn’t think the pension reforms went nearly far enough.

Carcieri’s plan would have forced all state workers (excluding judges and state police) and teachers to retire at a minimum age of 59 and eliminate COLA payments.

Carcieri had also said he wanted to see the newly hired government employees placed into 401-k style pension plans, similar to what’s offered in the vast majority of the private sector.

“The Governor thinks serious pension reform is necessary and that his reforms would have gone much further in making the plan sustainable,” said Amy Kempe, the governor’s spokeswoman.

Kempe said the Governor doesn’t support the legislature’s plan because it doesn’t go far enough to protect taxpayers.

House Minority Leader Robert Watson (R-East Greenwich), who has been increasingly feuding with the Governor, said he agrees.

“First of all, I don’t think it’s enough. Secondly, I recommended we reform the pension plan years and years ago and nobody listened. Why should I vote with (Democrats) now for a solution that doesn’t even solve a problem that they created,” said Watson.

Harry Staley, the Chairman of the Rhode Island Shoreline Coalition, a conservative group oriented toward making state and local governments more accountable, ethical and affordable, said the pension reforms leave something to be desired.

“I think what the reforms do is put off real changes to another year,” said Staley.