Click to view the press conference about
protecting your teachers' pension
Teachers’ Pension
"Because of our members' efforts our pensions
are now secure for the next 25 years. You did it, and
now we need to fix our medical benefits and fix
Social Security. We will do it, if you continue
to support ARTC."
As you are probably
aware by now, the Legislative Committee has had
to deal with a number of issues as a result of
the state budget cuts. Sadly, this has meant
realigning some of our goals for the year and
fighting instead to maintain what we have.
First and foremost we asked
you to contact the Governor and legislators to
make them aware of the consequences of the
decision to withhold the mandated one-third
contribution to our Health Fund (HIPA) for the
next two years (a loss of approximately 60
million dollars from the Fund). We thank those
of you who did contact your representatives. As
you may have learned, many of them were not even
aware that this withholding of the one-third
contribution was in the budget nor were they
aware of its impact. We believe we have
convinced many representatives that withholding
the state’s contribution cannot and must not
continue beyond these two years. However, we
must remain vigilant. Once again, on every
occasion you can, you need to remind your
representatives of the need to meet their
commitment to our Health Fund.
One occasion to do this is on
ARTC Lobby Day, April 14, 2010. Strength is in
numbers. Our goal is to have many retired
teachers lobby our legislators and the Governor
on that day. When legislators associate real
people, their constituents, with the ARTC, they
are more apt to remember us during tough
budgetary times.
In addition to the Health
Fund issue, we faced another problem concerning
health insurance. MEDCO informed the TRB that
it would not continue to be its drug provider
because of contractual issues with the state.
Again we asked that you contact the Attorney
General and the state legislators to resolve
this issue. We thank those of you who did as our
voices were heard. Although a number of tense
months passed in trying to resolve the problem,
a solution was reached with CVS/Caremark being
our new pharmaceutical benefit manager.
The good news through all
these trying times is that we have been assured
that our pension is secure. Nevertheless we
must continue to be concerned about the social
security injustice to Connecticut retired
teachers. We need to be aggressive in
supporting federal initiatives to repeal the
Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall
Elimination Provision (WEP). Please continue to
contact Senator Lieberman who does not favor
repeal. Let him know your concerns. We also
need to thank Senator Dodd and all our House
Representatives, who support the repeal, and
remind them to remain committed.
As retired teachers in
Connecticut, unlike state employees, we do not
have a bargaining unit to negotiate with the
legislature for our benefits. The ARTC
continues to be your eyes and ears in Hartford.
We are only as strong as our membership. The
legislative committee can only achieve its goals
if all retired teachers take the time to become
active.
Cathy D’Agostino
Sandra Bove
Legislative Committee Co-Chairs
