Articles about Legislation that may be useful to Massachusetts retirees.
Report Brings Focus to Increase For State Retirees & Employees
MAY 2014 Voice: Information recently obtained from the both the National and State Associations of Funeral Directors has brought renewed focus on our Association’s proposal to increase basic life insurance for state retirees and employees to $10,000.
Adopts Conservative Approach & Increased Funding
MARCH 2014 VOICE: Governor Deval Patrick and the state’s Legislative Leadership have agreed to significantly increase the appropriation toward funding the Commonwealth’s unfunded pension liabilities, along with shortening the pension funding schedule by four years and adopting a more conservative set of assumptions.
Includes 3% COLA & Funding Schedule Changes
JANUARY 22, 2014: Within the final budget proposal of his eight-year tenure as governor, Deval Patrick chose to include two provisions of critical long term importance to public retirees and surviving spouses.
As he has consistently done in the past, the governor has recommended a full 3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for state and teacher retirees who retired before July 1, 2013. Like 2013, the new COLA will be paid on a base of $13,000.
JANUARY 2014 VOICE: An issue of great concern to the Association is the end of the legal moratorium on increasing retiree and survivor health insurance contribution rates.
Within the Municipal Insurance Reform law (Chapter 69, Acts of 2011), our Association was able to secure language that has prohibited many cities and towns from increasing contribution rates on retirees and survivors over the past three years. The moratorium applies to any community that fully implements the provisions of Chapter 69.
JANUARY 2014 VOICE: Active employees turned out in droves for a public hearing on retiree healthcare reform held at the State House on Halloween.
The marathon hearing, before the Joint Committee on Public Service, lasted more than 6 hours. More than five hundred people filled the meeting room, bearing witness to a host of government, retiree and labor officials who testified on the proposal known as H59.
Public Service Committee Meets
JANUARY 2, 2014: The Joint Committee on Public Service is off to an aggressive start early in 2014 with a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, January 7th at 11:00 AM.
Tuesday’s hearing will focus on legislation impacting group classification of active employees. As members know, Massachusetts’ public retirement is organized into four groups (1-4), which are set in statute by the legislature.
JANUARY 2014 VOICE: As the state legislature begins Round 2 of its two-year session in January, the Association is poised to advance its legislative package.
All eighteen bills, filed by the Association in 2013, have now had a public hearing before the Joint Committee on Public Service. Some have since been released favorably by the Committee and are now working their way through the process on Beacon Hill.
Public Hearing on H59 Thursday
OCTOBER 28, 2013: Arguably the biggest issue to come before the legislature during the current two-year session reenters center stage on Beacon Hill this week, when H59, the much watched Retiree Healthcare Reform proposal, receives a public hearing.
Healthcare Reform Set For Halloween
OCTOBER 18, 2013: On Tuesday, the Joint Committee on Public Service will conduct a public hearing that includes legislation filed by the Association relative to disability retirement.
The bills, filed on our behalf by Representative Tacky Chan (D-Quincy), propose to improve the ordinary disability benefit for future retirees, as well as alter the oversight of disability retirees.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2013: Yesterday, the 18-member Executive Board of the Mass. Association of Contributory Retirement Systems (MACRS) unanimously voted to oppose legislation that would require the State’s Pension Fund Board (PRIM Board) to divest all holdings in the Fund, which include fossil fuel such as oil, gas and coal.
Since 1968 the Retired State, County and Municipal Employees Association has been the leading voice for Massachusetts public retirees and their families. Join with our 52,000 members as we continue the fight.
