Urgent Help Needed

From Your Indiana Retired Teachers Association Lobbying Team

WE URGENTLY NEED THE HELP OF EVERY MEMBER AND FRIEND OF RETIRED EDUCATORS!

Dear Member,

We have worked very hard to try to get a COLA for our retirees during the current legislative session. THE HOUSE BUDGET HAS A COLA IN IT! Because the Senate Appropriations Committee REFUSED to put ANYTHING for retirees into their budget, we are now faced with trying to get enough support to get a “13th check” or “stipend” that could be included in the budget when the House and Senate meet in conference to reconcile the two bills. We have only a few days to make our point. We have not had a COLA for seven years now, but at least an increased “13th check” would be helpful to those 14,000 retired teachers who get $1,000 or LESS in the monthly pension.

Please---contact your senator and your representative to ask them to support an increased “13th check!” Even if you’ve contacted them before, please do so again. We need a tidal wave of messages!

Remind them of what local business you can no longer support because you have lost 13% of your purchasing power.
Ask your children, your friends, and your neighbors to contact them.

Senators can be reached in the following ways:
S__@in.gov (Put their Senate district number in the blank after “S.”) OR

The Honorable _____________ (Or home address if known.)
200 W. Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Representatives can be reached by
H__@in.gov (put their House district number in the blank after the “H.”) OR

The Honorable ______________ (Or home address if known.)
200 W. Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204

To find your legislators: Go to the web site “Indiana General Assembly.” Scroll down to the tab at the bottom of the screen that says, “Find your legislator.” Put in your address and it will tell you. OR call our toll-free number: 1-800-454-9333 and ask us to help you find it.

Click HERE TO FIND YOUR LEGISLATOR.

Thank you for your help!
Nancy Tolson, Tom Mellish, Steve Beebe

April 16 AREA Meeting

Dear Allen County Retired Educators:

April is around the corner! It’s time to get together with our AREA friends! The date for this is Thursday, April 16, 2015, at Ziano’s Restaurant, 10520 Maysville Road.

Please check in so that the meeting can start at 11:00 A.M. promptly.

RESERVATIONS: Please make your reservation with Mary Jo Purvis at least one week before the meeting: 493-4263 or mpurvis1@frontier.com

The cost is $15.00, which can be paid at the meeting.

THE MENU: breadsticks; choice of house or Caesar salad; choice of lasagna, fettucine alfredo with chicken or shrimp, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken marsala, tilapia and angel hair pasta; choice of coffee, tea, or soft drink. Anyone who has special dietary needs should speak with your meal server to substitute within our budget.

FREE lunch to 2014 Retired Educators who have not attended any prior AREA meetings. TWO-FOR-ONE deal for Members who bring a non-member retired principal or teacher. Be sure to inform Mary Jo with your reservation.

PROGRAM: Scheduled speaker could not attend. Speaker will be AREA’s own Pam George, membership chairman. She will present a Power Point about her three week mission trip to Kenya, Africa last fall. Her trip provided a variety of wonderful experiences.

EYEGLASSES: Ed DeLong will be collecting old eyeglasses for Lion’s Club, as at all meetings!

THE IRTA REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY will be held Wednesday, June 17, 2015, at Primo South in Indianapolis. Please consider attending. It is very informative and costs you nothing! More information later, but put it on your calendar!

IRTA MEMBERSHIP – Have you joined? IRTA needs you! Contact Pam George.

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Legislative Bulletin #8

After the chaos of the past week, the legislators have gone home until Tuesday.  We are still meeting and talking, but our chance of getting a COLA faded this week when we were told that HB 1481 would not be heard.

Sad to say, one legislator stands between us and a COLA!

 

HOWEVER: it isn’t over until the last gavel bangs and they go home for the summer.  We do know that there are House members who still want us to get some help.  Therefore, we are talking to them to say that if all we can get is the so-called, “13^th check,” it needs to be larger, but even more importantly, it needs to help those on the lower end who get so little in their monthly pension.

 

As you talk to legislators over the next week or two, please remind them that our latest figures from INPRS show that over 14,000 retired teachers get less than $1,000 monthly.  That isn’t a pension to allow for many luxuries!

 

We still feel that many of the members of the House truly want to get something done, be it a COLA or the “13^th check.”   We will be working with some friends in the Senate in the coming days to see what can be done.

 

Perhaps it is simply from the tension and stress that has been evident over the past days that makes me feel pessimistic, but I have to tell you that I do not see a COLA in the future until and unless there is no longer a “Super Majority” in the legislature.  I hope I am wrong, but Tom is going to have battles to fight next year and longer, so all we can do is help him in any way he asks.

 

I do want to tell you that I feel very good about one thing—I asked you to contact Senator Long, and according to his administrative assistant, he got “lots” of letters and emails.

Thank you for doing your part!  And please do not feel that it didn’t matter.  It does matter; it is simply that the system is rigged against us for the time being.

 

Please continue to write and email, and if one of your legislators tells you he or she is for the COLA or for some form of help, especially if it is a Republican, ask them to please speak for us in their caucus.  That is where most of the decisions are made!  We are actively trying to find some voices in that caucus who will support us.  We have a few, but need more to speak up to those who control it. 

 

As we know more, we will keep you updated.

 

Nancy

Update to Legislative Update

This is an update to Legislative Update #7

March 26, 2015

            CALL TO ACTION!                                             CALL TO ACTION!

Members, we are now at the point where we need to make it known how many are watching what the Senate will do with HB 1481, the COLA bill. It was heard yesterday in the Pensions and Labor Committee. We testified for it; however, the chairman did not take a vote on it, but we hope that it will be reassigned to the Appropriations Committee for further discussion. We are in the process of trying to talk to each member on that committee.

NOW, IT IS TIME FOR EACH OF YOU TO HELP US BY CONTACTING THE PRESIDENT PRO-TEM OF THE SENATE, SENATOR DAVID LONG.

Letters and emails should be short, polite, and firm: Use only one or two of these bullet points:

• There is money in the INPRS budget for a COLA because the actuaries have put in a 1 % assumption that we would be getting a COLA.
• This assumption has been there each year, even the last six when we did not get a COLA.
• Even though the school corporations pay this extra 1%, it has been put toward the unfunded liability, one that was created by former administrations—not by teachers or school corporations.
• Inflation over the last six plus years has taken away about 13 % of our purchasing power.
• We spend this money in our communities and pay taxes on it, as do the business people from whom we purchase food, medicine, etc. (Put in places where you spend much of your money.)
• A COLA in this biennium will only set back the final pay-off of the unfunded liability a few months further than as if we got nothing.
• There are 12,936 Indiana retired teachers from the pre-’96 fund who get $1000 or less in their monthly pension. They deserve some help as inflation eats away at these small amounts.

And PLEASE, find five to ten others that will also write to the Senator. We must let the Republican caucus in the Senate know that we are strong and determined. We are not asking for much, and the members of the House acknowledge that. It is time that the Senate does also!
Letters should be addressed to:

The Honorable David Long
200 W. Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204

emails should go to: Senator.Long@iga.in.gov

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Legislative Update #7

March 24, 2015

Hello:

We wanted to update you on what is going on in the legislature this week. Movement is beginning again on Bills in the Senate. Senator Boots, chair of Pensions and Labor committee, has scheduled HB1481 to be heard tomorrow (Wednesday, March 25) at 9:00 A.M. At this time we have heard various rumors such as: it will be heard with no action; heard and voted on; heard and amended from a COLA to a 13th check…. Nancy will testify on behalf of the bill moving forward with the COLA, but will support the 13th check if it is amended and ask for the amount of the checks to be raised, since they have not been for many years.

Steve, Nancy, and I have been meeting with Senators on the Pensions and Labor committee and Senate Appropriations on behalf of the COLA in HB1481. We have been sharing the information that the 1% COLA formula will cost less than the assumption INPRS established when presenting the 1% COLA for the biennium. That savings can be used to pay down the pre-96 unfunded liability, while still giving a very modest increase on our base pensions. We are attaching a letter that Nancy and Steve put together that was mailed to all senators and senators on the Pensions and Labor Committee also received an email copy.

Final decisions on bills with cost factors and their effect on the general fund will not be finalized until the April Revenue Forecast is received. We are confident that the last two weeks of the session will be very busy. Once we see the how HB1481 stands after the committee hearing, we will be targeting the Senate Appropriation Committee members with meetings.

You will receive another update later this week after we see what shape HB1481 is in after the hearing. If you talk, see, or write to your senators, please encourage them to support HB1481.

Thank you for your continued work on the committee and the support of our legislative agenda.

Sincerely,

Nancy, Tom and Steve

Change of Speaker for April 16

We have a change in the speaker for our AREA April 16, 2015 meeting. Dr. Jacobson, Dean of Ball State University Teachers College, was to speak. I received a phone call, and he has to attend a conference on Research in Chicago that day. He does want to speak at one of our meetings, but we will have to wait until next year because we are already booked for our June 16 meeting. One of the former students in the Ball State Teachers College Immersive Learning program, Abigail Savage, will be speaking at our June 16 meeting, as scheduled. Abby often presents with Dr. Jacobson.

Never fear!! We have a great program for April 16! Our own Pam George will be presenting a Power Point on her three week mission trip to Kenya last fall. She had some wonderful experiences. Thanks, Pam. We won't have to wait until next year to hear about your trip!

Members, the next AREA Newsletter about our April 16 meeting will be arriving in your mailbox soon! Make sure that the date is on your calendar! Try to bring a non-member or a member who has not attended in awhile!

Carol Buttell, President

Legislative News

Legislative News!!

A bill to give a COLA for the next two years passed the House on third reading on Wednesday afternoon. It passed 94 to 0!

It will now go to the Senate, where Senator Boots is the sponsor and Senator Tallian is the second sponsor. Please write to them to express your appreciation for their sponsorship.

If you have not yet thanked the House members who sponsored and worked on our bills, please do so now.

Senator Boots: Senator.Boots@iga.in.gov
Senator Tallian: s4@iga.in.gov

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