The New Hampshire Senate is getting ready to vote tomorrow on two measures that would reform the state’s ailing retirement system.
Lawmakers, public employees and retirees in general agree that reforms are needed.
But the questions of how much needs to be done and who should pay for it are still under dispute.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s David Darman has more.
In the discussion of how to shore up the state’s underfunded retirement system, one message stands out.
And that message comes from the ranks of the retired.
They want their COLAS.
Barbara Doyle is president of the 4,000 member New Hampshire Retired Educators Association.
The cola she and others are talking about is not a carbonated drink…it's a cost of living adjustment.
They retired way back when, they’re 90 years old now, and they’re getting 700 dollars a month, plus you then have to pay the health insurance and they need the cola, they need the cola.
The legislature has heard retirees of all incomes say they want, or need a cost of living raise.
In one bill scheduled to come before the Senate, retirees are due to get a 2.5 percent cola for the coming year.
But the longer term prospects for an annual cola are less than certain.
One option the House considered in March was to raise what current employees pay to fund retiree raises.
The measure would have raised state employee and teacher rates from 5 to 7 percent.
And it would have raised police and firefighter rates from around 9 percent to 13 percent.
But the Firefighters Union refuses to support the measure.
They argue that state and municipal governments have gotten off easy, and not paid their fair share in the past.
State and local governments have agreed to pay more.
But Arthur Beaudry, a retired Manchester firefighter, says those still at the firehouse have good reason to resist paying more.
I don’t know if people are aware that police and fire do not participate into social security. We don’t get social security, where teachers and state employees get social security and their pension. Firefighters don’t. so, we’ve been paying 9.3 percent of our salary for many, many years.
It's true, teachers and state employees get social security, but they also pay into it…as well as into their pensions.
Firefighters and police don't.
And though retired teachers collect a pension and social security, they say their combined totals don’t add up to anything near the pensions firefighters draw down.
Barbara Doyle of the Retired Educators Association taught elementary school for years in Portsmouth.
She argues firefighters get their pensions based on a generous 80 percent of their compensation when they retire.
…by far, their retirement salaries are much higher than the teachers. The teachers get 50 percent of what they can do. …We do not get overtime. Which, they do get overtime and their special jobs go through the city and they can build their salaries up to a hundred or more than a hundred percent of their salaries.
The measures headed to the state senate assure public employees that they won’t have to pay higher rates next year.
But many former state employees say they see no reason why the matter shouldn’t come up again in the future.
Pat McLane was a receptionist for the state police for twenty-three years.
She says her husband was a state trooper, who reached the rank of lieutenant.
McLane says she and her husband don’t understand why firefighters and other public workers aren’t willing to pay more, if it would save the retirement system.
They all have to look at they have to look at down the road that they’re all going to be retiring. And what they do could affect them ten years from now when they’re retired. …. You know, when my husband and I were working we were contributing to those receiving pensions. And that’s just the way it works.
The pension reform measures could change on the Senate floor, but for now, a two and a half percent COLA for one year is in the works.
Governor Lynch has also pushed for the formation of a committee to study all aspects of the retirement system.
If approved, that committee won't have much time, since a report would be due by December first.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo