You can’t treat a disease by only addressing its symptoms. Yet that has been the preferred approach when it comes to the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Nevada. The Nevada Highway Patrol can’t hire and retain enough officers. As the Review-Journal’s Glenn Puit recently reported , its vacancy rate is around 50 percent. Lawmakers have already tried the obvious solution — higher pay. In 2023, the state approved a 23 percent raise. Yet the agency is still struggling, despite continued recruitment efforts. Digging deeper, it becomes apparent that there is another factor at work. New troopers start with a salary of around $64,000 or $81,000. That’s a significant gap. The difference is PERS, which provides defined benefit retirement payouts to government retirees. Here’s where it gets complicated. In Nevada’s system, retirement contributions are split evenly between the employing agency and employees. Local government agencies (read: taxpayers) cover the employee’s contribution on behalf of the employee.…