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Hingham Makes "One-Time" Cola Payment |
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SEPTEMBER 1999 - Refuses To Recognize State Law - Hingham's
Retirement Board has made a "one-time" COLA payment to its retirees.
The payment was 2.1% for the 1998 COLA and 1.3% for the 1999 COLA.
In
a July 30 letter to its retirees, the Board emphasized that this
payment is "one-time" and that "this payment shall be separate from
your retirement allowance, and it will not be cumulative."
"Thus
far, unlike other retirement systems, Hingham has refused to recognize
that all COLAs are permanent and cumulative," said Association
President Ralph White. "This is an end run around Chapter 17, the COLA
law, which Hingham never accepted. By making this payment, they hope to
placate those retirees who are questioning their strategy."
For
two years Hingham has been unsuccessfully attempting to push a bill
through the Legislature which would allow its Board to pay COLAs from a
special fund which would not recognize COLAs as a permanent obligation
of their pension fund.
"Hingham
would set the clock back 25 years. It was in 1974 our Association was
responsible for Chapter 724 that made all COLAs immediately part of a
retiree's permanent pension, which until that point they weren't,"
White pointed out. "The Hingham scheme is simply poor pension policy."
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