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Legislative Updates

Legislative Update No. 39, Session 80
By Tim Lee, Executive DirectorPrinter Friendly ||| Print as PDF

May 11, 2007

TRTA Special Update and Sample Legislator Contact Letter

TRTA Member Communication Getting a Good Response

TRTA members are doing a great job getting the message delivered to the Texas Legislature! Keep it up.  If you have already called your legislators, then call a fellow TRTA member and ask them to contact their legislators.  We need an overwhelming number of TRTA members to reinstate what we need and why we need it.  The process is getting slowed by differentiating proposals in the House and the Senate.  TRTA member efforts may be the push needed to get this issue moving in the direction that gets the TRS pension fund actuarially sound and retirees a fully-funded 13th check.

Some have asked for a sample letter to use when writing your legislative members.  Below is a draft letter that you can use when contacting your legislative members.  Please feel free to edit and personalize this message as you see fit. 

Finally, your updates on how legislators are responding is VERY helpful.  Many of you have sent in these responses and we are following up that information as it comes in.  Please know that any update you can send is appreciated.

We will continue to keep you posted on this issue as it develops. 

TRTA Sample Letter

 

May 11, 2007

 

Dear Senator/Representative:

 

I am a retired member of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) and belong to the Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA).

 

Let me begin by thanking you for your public service in the Texas Legislature.  Your dedicated service is greatly appreciated.

 

As you probably know, the Legislature has not authorized a benefit increase for TRS annuitants in over 6 years.  The loss of TRS annuitants’ buying power no exceeds 18% since 2001.  Truthfully, that statistic may be too low as many retirees have been hit hard by rising energy costs, increasing medical costs, and just a higher cost of living in general for retired persons on fixed incomes.

 

In years past, the Legislature has worked to provide benefit increases as circumstances allowed, but during the last six years, the TRS pension fund has not been actuarially sound.  Last session, TRTA worked with the Legislature to develop reasonable compromises to help the fund get back on track.  No new money, though, went to the pension fund.  Yet, retired educators supported the efforts of the Legislature knowing that the process of getting the pension fund actuarially sound may happen in steps. 

 

This session, right now, the Legislature MUST take that next step and send more money to the TRS pension fund.  It is imperative that the Legislature make the necessary State appropriation to the TRS pension fund and make the System actuarially sound.  Only then will retirees be able to receive a benefit increase.

 

Equally important with making the pension fund sound, the Legislature MUST provide a benefit increase to TRS annuitants.  Both the Senate and the House have embraced the idea of providing retirees with a 13th check, but no proposal has actually been passed to make this happen.  We NEED some HELP this session! A fully-funded 13th check would provide some much needed relief.

 

These budget proposals and benefit increase options seem to be bottled up in the Legislative process.  All I ask is that you speak to your colleagues about HB 1 and HB 1105 and urge them to take the concepts in these proposals and GET THEM ENACTED FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL TRS RETIREES!

 

Thank you for your time and service,

 

 

TRTA Member

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