By WILLIAM PETROSKI | Des Moines Register (IA) | September 17, 2009

The Iowa Legislature will work to shore up finances of the state's largest public employees' pension fund, which has lost billions of dollars in investments, Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal said Wednesday.  Gronstal said lawmakers would take a deliberate, careful approach to alleviating the problems during the legislative session that convenes in January. The Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System has 312,000 members who are current, former or retired employees of cities, counties, school districts and state agencies. ….. Danny Homan, state president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, disagreed that public-sector benefits are out of line. Private companies that lament good benefits provided to public employees "ought to cut their profit margins. Then they would be able to provide those benefits," he said.