'OPB Politics Now:' The $22 Billion Question: Understanding PERS

OPB’s political reporting team is getting ready for the start of the Oregon legislature’s 2019 session.

So this week, we’re bringing you something special: Our friends at "Think Out Loud" have spent months trying to understand Oregon’s deeply troubled public employee retirement system.

They talked to people worried about what will happen to them if their pensions are reduced, and to people who are worried about what will happen to the state if PERS continues to eat away at the rest of the state budget.

The result is this hour-long look at one the biggest problems facing Oregon leaders as they head into the 2019 session.