VIDEO: Gov. Terry Branstad opened a debate Monday over the future of public employees' pensions in Iowa, although he says he doesn't want to create financial hardships for government workers and he recognizes the issue requires substantial study. State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald, a Democrat, immediately responded by sounding an alarm over the fate of defined benefit pensions currently provided by the Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System, known as IPERS, which has 350,000 members. He said all of Iowa's public employees — police officers, school teachers, county and state workers and others — should be troubled by plans being explored by Republican politicians throughout the country to change public employees' pension benefits.