Tell the Senate: Don't cut retirement benefits!

The Senate could vote by Tuesday, May 1, on four bills that will seriously erode retirement benefits for public employees in Louisiana.

Higher education faculty will be subject to these proposed laws. Some lawmakers say that K-12 teachers should not be concerned about these plans because they are not included in all of the bills. That is a dangerous fallacy – click here to find out why K-12 teachers should be as concerned as other public servants about these plans.

Members of the state retirement systems are being scapegoated for the legislature’s decades-long failure to adequately fund the retirement systems. With the state in a fiscal crisis, the governor and some lawmakers want to take advantage of the situation and diminish our retirement systems.

The result of these four bills will be lower retirement incomes and higher taxes for public employees. Please send a message and ask your senator to vote NO on SB 33, SB 52, SB 47 and SB 749, all by Sen. Elbert Guillory (D-Opelousas).

• SB 33 would require employers to keep contributing to the retirement systems after an employee enters the DROP plan. The bill flies in the face of DROP’s original purpose: incentivizing both employers and employees to keep our best workers continuing to serve the public.
• SB 52 is essentially a three percent tax on employees who would contribute more of their salaries to the retirement system. Employer contributions remain unchanged while workers are asked to foot the bill in the name of “sustainability.”
• SB 47 decreases employee pensions by calculating the final average compensation (FAC) on an employee’s top five earning years instead of three. Future retirees would have less security and smaller incomes at the end of their careers.
• SB 749 (formerly SB 51) creates a tiered system of pension benefits for public employees. It will result in smaller pensions for all new employees as well as for many current employees who are not close to retirement.

It is simply wrong to use a fiscal crisis as a pretense to threaten the future security of loyal employees who have dedicated their careers to public service. Please take action and tell your Senator to vote NO when these bills are heard.