The Association of Retired Teachers of Connecticut (ARTC) is a non-profit organization of retired teachers that represent 6,000 members/affiliates and advocate for 32,000 of CT retired teachers.
ARTC:
- Promotes the economic, professional, and social well being of CT retired teachers.
- Encourages the participation of retirees in service to their communities.
- Advocates the continuous improvement of education in CT schools.
ARTC’s primary concerns center on the financial security of our pension and health insurance benefits. We also advocate for the preservation of Medicare. Our goals are to work towards:
- Maintaining our pension system.
- Securing full state funding of our health insurance premium account (HIPA).
- Eliminating the state income tax on teacher retirees’ pensions.
- Preserving the Social Security COLA by opposing the Chained CPI.
- Repealing the GPO/WEP.
Connecticut had only received a 25% tax break on their pensions. By the efforts of ARTC this was changed in June 2021 to a 50% CT tax exemption. Click here to read the announcement from our Legislative Committee. 26% of retired teachers choose to move to other states upon retirement, states where their income is not heavily taxed. This is a money drain on the state of Connecticut.
Opposing the Chained CPI is important to us because any adverse effects to the SS COLA will affect us two fold. For most CT retired teachers our pension COLA is based on the SS COLA. Therefore, any reduction in the SS COLA will reduce our pension.
CT teachers contributed to their pension during their working years, and we fail to see why our pension is not considered a private pension, but looked at as a SS retirement benefit. The GPO/WEP has turned into an unfair and regressive tax on thousands of municipal workers throughout the country. It is an unfair law that mainly discriminates against widowed women.
To read our full bylaws click here