The Special Committee on Public Employee Pensions Reform will meet again this Friday, February 11th. The Special Committee is considering a variety of legislation that would cut pension benefits and increase retirees' costs for health care, including
- HB 537, which would reduce pension benefits by amounts ranging from 1% to 20%, based on the amount of the pension
- HB 231, which would require retired state employees to absorb another $15 million to $20 million of their health care costs, with the amount charged to each individual calculated through a complex formula including the amount of the retiree's pension benefit and the number of years' state service
In the next day or so, please take the time to write a letter to the editor of your local newspapers, explaining what you do (or did) for the citizens of our great state, and how the Special Committee's bills would affect you and your family.
You can use our on-line tool to send your letter to the newspapers, by visiting http://1984.seiu.org/Pensions and entering your zipcode. Please remember to use your own computer and personal email address when sending the letter; and keep your letter short (less than 250 words).
The authors of these bills seem to taking their cues from the national campaign against public workers. They also seem to have forgotten that here in New Hampshire, we expect people to live up to their promises.
For decades, workers left higher private-sector wages for state service based on the promise that they would have modest financial security when they retired. Now, some members of the Legislature want to go back on that promise -- cutting our pension benefits and health care coverage. If these bills pass, many of our retirees will be forced to turn to state programs or their local welfare offices for assistance. That's not fiscal restraint, that's cost-shifting.
We need to remind these Legislators -- and the public -- that New Hampshire residents rely on state workers for everything from plowing highways to protecting abused children; taking care of our elderly veterans to processing unemployment claims. Our work is valuable -- and we deserve the secure retirement that we were promised.
