I feel compelled to respond to my good friend Tom Shields’ March 16 letter to the editor covering the state pension’s unfunded liability.

I know that it is therapy for him to write; however, I think that all the letter-writing has totally clouded his memory.

In his letter he stated, “Republicans inherited the current state retirement funding deficit.”

He must know, as well as I do, that all legislative retirement funding decisions since 1992 have been unanimous. What happened in 1992 was that Republican Gov. John McKernan and all Republicans in the Legislature at the time borrowed from the retirement system.

As a member of the House, I opposed the budget that year for that very reason — even though Republican leadership begged me to vote for it.

The truth is, Republicans helped cause the problem, not just inherited it.

John Nutting, Leeds