Not Another Cent - MEA Pledge Cards

From MEA's informational handout "Not Another Cent". For the full document please go to: http://www.maine.nea.org/notanothercent

In the last 20 years Maine's average teacher salary fell from 31st in the nation to 44th. Pensions and benefits under the Maine Public Employee Retirement System (MePERS - previously known as Maine State Retirement) were cut and frozen. Health Insurance plans provided by MEA's Benefits Trust are threatened by a legislative attack that could increase rates and lower coverage.

MEA is asking members to sign pledge cards in support of retirement benefits, insurance rates and to stop cutting, capping what we have worked so hard for. 

The cards will be delivered to the MEA office and then will be delivered by MEA to the State Legislation.

Please make sure they are received by Crystal Goodrich by next Friday:  Jan. 20^th.

If you do not have a card from your building representative please use the following link, fill out a pledge card and return it to Crystal at Wentworth Intermediate via interoffice mail or to your building rep. They will deliver the cards to me.

FOR A PLEDGE CARD GO TO:

http://msg6svc.net/static/neame/images/pledgecardv_111411.pdf

Once the cards are received by MEA they will be delivered to the State Legislature. Our goal is to have at least 90% of our membership complete a pledge card and have it sent in.

Please participate in this simple action to help protect the benefits we work so hard for. It will only take a few minutes of your time and your voice will be heard.

Thank you!
Crystal Goodrich
MEA President

New MEA Newsletters

Threats To Your Healthcare, April 9
AND
The MEA Connection, April 7

From MEA: Lies About Your Pension

Read the MEA Newsletter about your pension by following this link:

Lies About Your Pension - MEA

Update on retirement and health insurance

From Cheryl Lunde, UniServ Director District 2

Hi folks,

Yesterday I received a legislative update on the retirement and health insurance issues.  These are the priority issues for MEA this legislative session and the goal of the topics for the meetings/discussions with legislators.  I have copied it into this message for your information:

The Pension

There are no changes to the pension yet. The Governor’s proposed changes to the pension are sitting on the Appropriations Committee’s table. They have taken no action and will not until they can come up with an entire budget that addresses this issue and all the others.

Most observers are predicting late May as the timeframe for the budget to move forward. While the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee works on other parts of the budget, it will be important to keep this issue fresh in legislators’ minds. Contacting and re-contacting legislators will be important over the next 6 weeks or so.

Health Insurance

LD 404 and LD 619 have had a hearing are headed to work session on April 1. There is no schedule available for when it will come to the floor.

LD 404 will force the MEA Benefits trust to collect experience rates by district rather than by the whole plan and share it with school districts. Healthier districts can then go shopping for a deal.

The downside – When a healthy district leaves the plan the remaining participants will be charged more because, as a group they are less healthy with the missing district. A catastrophic illness in the small group that leaves will cause huge spikes in rates in subsequent years.

LD 619 will give school districts the option of joining the state plan – subject to negotiations.

The downside – The state plan is currently much more expensive (almost $190.00 per month for a single plan). There would be no control over benefit design and coverage could be reduced to lower costs (like a very high deductible plan).

LD 844 and LD 877 are scheduled for hearing on April 5.

LD 844 will force competitive bidding by districts and could force the breakup of the large MEA Benefits trust pool of participants. It will also allow school districts and municipalities to join the state plan.

The downside – When a healthy district leaves the plan the remaining participants will be charged more because, as a group they are less healthy with the missing district. A catastrophic illness in the small group that leaves will cause huge spikes in rates in subsequent years.

LD 857 will force all school employees into the state plan.

The downside – The state plan is currently much more expensive (almost $190.00 per month for a single plan). There would be no control over benefit design and coverage could be reduced to lower costs (like a very high deductible plan).

Bottom line – The MEA Benefits Trust plans are cost effective, well managed, and are important to our members.

Governor LePage Will Not Take A Pay Cut Under His Proposed Pension Plan

SEA Members -

Below is an article from the Kennebec Journal stating the reality of Governor LePage's plan. Governor LePage will not take a cut in his pension under his new plan, but we will.

This is information I plan on presenting to Amy Volk, State House Representative today at our meeting.

Please send your letters into the Appropriations Committee to defend our pensions and our bargaining unit's right to a good healthcare plan!

Here the email address: 

Carol.Tompkins@legislature.maine.gov 

the emails will be forwarded to the 13 Appropriations Committee members who will determine the future of our retirement.
Or real mail your comments to:

AFA Committee c/o 5 Statehouse Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0005

Send your email today, don't wait another minute!

Thank you!

Crystal Goodrich

President SEA

Beginning of article..................................................................................

March 13

MIKE TIPPING: LePage exempts own pension from budget cutbacks

Mike Tipping

Under Gov. Paul LePage's proposed budget, teachers and other state employees will be required to increase their contributions to the pension system, from 7.65 percent of their salary to 9.65 percent.

One public employee currently paying 7.65 percent, however, won't see an increase.
The governor has exempted himself.

While public employees and teachers face this increase, as well as a raise in the retirement age, a freeze on cost-of-living adjustments for current retirees and a 2 percent cap on future cost of living increases, LePage's personal contribution rate to the retirement system will remain the same, which means he'll be paying $21,420 over four years.

If LePage faced the same increase as state employees, it would cost him $5,880 over his term.
Unlike teachers and state employees, however, the size of the governor's pension doesn't depend on how long he pays into the system. As soon as he leaves office, he'll begin receiving a three-eighths of his salary, which works out to $26,600 annually.

For comparison, a Maine teacher would have to work for more than 25 years to receive this level of benefits.

Confidential employees, those that are not represented under union collective bargaining, also are not seeing their salary contributions increased to the same rate. They'll continue to pay just 3.65 percent of their salary to the pension fund.

At the same time that most employees are to be forced to increase their contributions, the state will reduce the amount it pays into the retirement fund.

Maine currently contributes 5.5 percent of an employee's salary, less than the 6.2 percent it would have to pay if these workers were enrolled in Social Security rather than the more efficient state pension system.

It is difficult, then, to take LePage seriously when he says, "I know some teachers and retirees are struggling, but we need honest and shared solutions to solve our pension problem," as he did last week, or when his spokesperson talked about "shared sacrifices" as they announced the budget.

LePage's budget shows the same lack of fairness on a larger scale as well. Last week, LePage's commissioner of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Sawin Millett, explained that the money raised from these payment increases on teachers and public employees isn't targeted to shore up the state's pension system, but will instead pay for other budget priorities, including $203 million in tax cuts.

Maine's wealthiest residents will benefit the most from these cuts. One percent of households, those earning more than $360,000, will see their income taxes go down by $2,700. The budget also would double the size of estates that are exempt from the estate tax from $1 million to $2 million, a provision that would benefit only about 550 Maine families and cost the rest of us $30 million.

Overall, about half of the benefits of LePage's proposed tax cuts would go to Maine's richest 10 percent.

Amplifying this vast shift in money toward those who need it the least, LePage's budget also would cut funding for the Maine's property tax refund program, which helps families keep their homes, and roll back prescription drug coverage for seniors and health coverage for working families.

Compared to the size and scope of these misplaced priorities, LePage exempting himself from having to pay the same increase as other public employees doesn't seem like that big of a deal.
It does show, however, just how deaf the governor is on this issue. He could have made political hay by trumpeting the fact that he will be suffering right along with the teachers of Maine. That kind of anecdote might have helped people to ignore the larger unfairness of his budget.

And, in the end, it really is a question of fundamental fairness. These public employees have made contracts to serve the people of Maine in exchange for compensation and benefits that all parties agreed on. State employees earn less than their private-sector counterparts earn, and part of the way Maine is still able to attract dedicated public servants is by letting them know that their retirement savings will be kept safe and will guarantee them a reasonable retirement.

Over the past eight years, Maine's teachers and public employees already have been subject to more than $150 million in takebacks to their wages and benefits.

For LePage to go after their pensions again in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthy isn't right, and for him to exempt himself from the same cuts is both bad politics and bad policy.

Mike Tipping is a political junkie. He writes the Tipping Point blog on Maine politics at DownEast.com, his own blog at MainePolitics.net and works for the Maine People's Alliance and the Maine People's Resource Center. He's @miketipping on Twitter.

Who Contributes To State Employee Pensions?

Below is a link to an article, a very compelling argument for keeping State Retirement for retirees. It is written by a small online news non-profit called Common Dreams.org.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/09-9

SEA Members will be meeting with Amy Volk (House Representative for a portion of Scarborough)  on Monday, March 14 to discuss our views and ask her about her views on the proposed cuts of Maine State Retirement benefits. We will be discussing the impact these cuts would have on our income as State Employees and on our retirement benefits. I will blog following our conversation to keep you informed.

- Crystal Goodrich
SEA President

MEA Report: Retirment Hearing Packed

Please follow this link to read the MEA report regarding the Maine State Retirement hearing in Augusta on Friday 3/4/2011.

MEA Newsletter