Summer 2011

In this difficult economy with pensions, Social Security and Medicare in danger, ARTC remains ever more committed to protecting our pension, health insurance as well as fighting for the repeal or the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision (GPO/WEP).

Despite deficit budgets, we have gained some success in Hartford.  After vigorous lobbying, the State budget, proposed by the Governor and passed by the Legislature, assured the mandatory payments to our pension and Health Insurance Fund (HIPA).  The proposed Dental Bill which would have affected ARTC members adversely was addressed in our favor at the committee level.  Proposed legislation to allow unions to deduct dues payments directly from the TRB pension payments was unsuccessful.  It would have adversely affected the Association of Retired Teachers since we are not considered a “union”.   We need to remain vigilant to these issues as they will likely return in the next legislative session.

On the national level, we attended the National Retired Teachers Conference (NRTA) in Washington, D.C., as Co-Chairs of the ARTC Legislative Committee.  We met with our new Senator Richard Blumenthal and aides to Senator Lieberman.   Senator Blumenthal received us warmly and assured us that he has signed on to measures to secure Social Security.  He is also committed to the GPO/WEP.  Once again, we were not successful in gaining Senator Lieberman’s commitment.  Presently, the House has introduced a bill for the repeal of the GPO/WEP but the Senate has not.  We must continue to educate and lobby for this repeal.  We urge you to contact your Legislators to Congress.  To stay informed on this issue, log on to www.ssfairness.com.

At the conference, we also spoke to a member of AARP’s Policy Committee about supporting the repeal of the GPO/WEP.  His response was that “AARP would not support a budgetary issue.”  We contend this is a fairness issue adversely affecting more than half a million retirees throughout the USA.  AARP’s policy is to ensure the wellbeing of senior citizens.  Surely the repeal of this arbitrary and discriminatory law should be part of their policy.

We urge all our members to contact the AARP Policy Making Committee at www.aarp.org/input  to support the repeal.  For more information against the punitive government offsets refer to www.ssfairness.com.

The ARTC continues to be your eyes and ears in Hartford but 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.

Sandra Bove & Cathy D’Agostino, Co-Chairs, ARTC Legislative Committee