Late in June, Romney surprisingly vetoed section 375 of the FY05 state budget, which sets up a comprehensive actuarial study aimed at raising the base amount to which the COLA is applied. In continuing to disregard public retirees, the governor called the study "unnecessary" and struck the section from the budget.

This move left Association leaders with no choice but to seek the support of Legislative leaders to override the veto. With the formal session coming to an end on July 31, just days after Boston was to be locked down by the Democratic National Convention, Association officials had little time to spare in obtaining the veto override.

After non-stop lobbying by Association leaders, and many of our rank-and-file members, the Legislature voted on an override on July 22. It was unanimously passed by a vote of 156-0 in the House and 38-0 in the Senate.

The new law will focus on an issue that has frustrated our members for several years - the $12,000 COLA base. It requires the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (PERAC) to analyze and study the costs and actuarial liabilities of raising the base to which the cost-of-living percentage is applied and file recommendations with the Legislature on or before December 31, 2005.

PERAC's study will include increasing the base from $12,000 to $22,000 incrementally by the thousand and provide alternating COLA funding schedules which would reduce the unfunded liability to zero by 2028, 2034 and 2038 respectively.

Because the Commonwealth's pension funding law requires that any change in a pension law, such as the COLA base, be treated as a future pension liability, and money put aside for future payments, it became apparent that filing bills each year for a higher base under the current funding schedules were fruitless.

"Quite simply, without addressing the future cost of a base increase, we were spinning our wheels in chasing a change in the base," said Association President Ralph White. "Although sympathetic, the Legislature has been stymied by the mandatory funding schedule in effect for all of our 106 retirement systems. We will now have an opportunity to address this issue in a realistic manner."

"Bob Koczera (House co-chairman of the Joint Public Service Committee) and his staff worked closely with Bill Rehrey, our legal counsel, in drafting this budget provision and Bob went on to carry it in the House," said Association Legislative Liaison Shawn Duhamel. "Steve Tolman, the new Senate co-chairman, sponsored the provison in the Senate. Getting the veto override was truly a team effort requiring the support of the entire leadership team and members of both branches."

In addition to the COLA base study, there were other pension-related items contained in the FY05 state budget. Here are two that may interest our members:

• Allowing a retiree to re-enter public service full-time if they pay back the amount of pension paid to them, plus interest, which, after working at least 5 years, would entitle them to retire with an enhanced pension based upon their new date of retirement. Editor's Note: A retiree still has the option of receiving their pension and working as a public employee part-time (no more than 960 hours), or waiving their pension totally while they're employed full-time in the public sector.
• Raising from 21 to 22 the maximum age up to which certain retirees (i.e., accidental disability retirees and surviving spouses) can receive a dependency allowance for a child who is a full-time student.