|
Action necessary:
►Print
and distribute this message to colleagues and friends.
►Send
an e-mail to your Representative on PERS/TRS (See House Finance
Story April 19)
►
Send an e-mail to your representative and
senator supporting a Base Student Allocation of $5,953
Calendar:
►
April
20 - House Finance - HB 13 / Pension Obligation Bonds 1:30PM
►
April
20 - House Judiciary / Double Fines in School Zones 1:00PM
►
April
24 - House HESS - HB 192 / Layoff and Non-Retention of Teachers
3:00PM
VIEW
FROM THE HILL
There are now less than four weeks remaining in the 2007
session. Yesterday, the House Finance committee moved the
Supplemental budget (SB 61) and today they moved SB 123 (The
PERS/TRS “fix-it” legislation). Please see associated story
and take action. Governor Palin’s AGIA legislation along
with the operating and capital budget has kept things busy
this week. The clock is ticking fast and much work remains
to be accomplished.
HOUSE
FINANCE SB 61
—
Supplemental Appropriations &
SB 123
—
PERS/TRS "fix-it" LEGISLATION
House finance followed through on the work of the Senate
passing SB 61 from committee on Wednesday. SB 61 puts
$1 Billion dollars into the Public Education
Fund. The Senate vote was unanimous (19-0). Look for this
legislation to be voted on in the House as soon as next
week. This is a great place to put excess revenues.
NEA-Alaska applauds this effort and looks forward to real
increases to K-12 education to achieve adequate funding.
SB
61 also appropriates $415,000 for the work done to date on a
potential lawsuit against Mercer consulting. This work
needs to continue as it could trim the unfunded liability
significantly.
SB
123 — WHAT DOES IT FIX?
Today the House Finance committee met and heard about a 20
minute overview from the Department of Administration on the
55 page – 121 section piece of legislation that is SB 123.
The so called “fix-it” bill will allow for Alaska’s Defined
Contribution Retirement plan (DCR Plan) to pass IRS and
other federal hurdles.
Rep.
Nelson (Bethel) asked if a person in the DC plan, upon
becoming disabled had health coverage with their 40%
disability pension? She was told they did not!! That is
correct, a new police officer, firefighter or teacher (or
any public employee) could be injured, wheel-chair bound or
worse and not have any health benefits. The question and
answer while shocking led to no amendment or changes to SB
123.
Like
SB 141 (the 125 page behemoth with at least 90 errors) two
years ago there seems to be very few that even know what is
in the legislation.
The
question that needs to be addressed is why is Alaska
continuing with a DCR plan at all? We know that Nebraska
and West Virginia went back to Defined Benefit (DB) after
suffering recruitment and retention problems, and in West
Virginia, they ended up with the must underfunded retirement
plan in the nation. This new DC plan is actually more
expensive for teachers than the TRS tier II plan.
Continuing on this path as the only State with no social
security net for public employees and no Defined Benefit
plan for public employees hired after July 1, 2006 is
ludicrous.
Please take the time to contact your Representative and ask
them, at a minimum to consider giving new employees a choice
of whether they want to go into a DB plan or a DC plan.
Why
limit the ability of employers to recruit and retain? Why
limit new employees to a risky DC plan?
Send your e-mail or call your representative today. SB 123
could be on the House floor early next week!
The next LCS
will be published on Tuesday, April 24th. As always, If
you know anyone who wishes to receive the LCS/Legislative
Update, please send us an e-mail with their home e-mail
address if possible, and we’ll add them to the growing list
of K-12 education advocates!
HAPPENINGS IN JUNEAU
Session begins the final month and things are starting to
heat up. House Finance will meet on Saturday and House
Judiciary held a five hour meeting today on the
constitutional amendment to deny health benefits to same-sex
couples that currently have benefits. Get ready for a busy
last month and stay tuned.
SENATE FLOOR SESSION – SB 61 – Supplemental Appropriations
The
Senate passed a committee substitute for SB 61 that puts
$1 Billion dollars into the Public Education
Fund. The Senate vote was unanimous (19-0). This is a good
place to put excess revenues. NEA-Alaska applauds this
effort and looks forward to real increases to K-12 education
to achieve adequate funding. SB 61 is scheduled tomorrow in
House Finance (see Calendar). Let’s hope the House
continues the effort and puts the money into the Public
Education Fund.
SB
61 also appropriates $415,000 for the work done to date on a
potential lawsuit against Mercer consulting. This work
needs to continue as it could trim the unfunded liability
significantly.
RETIREMENT LEGISLATION
The
Senate Finance committee has been busy working on the budget
this week and will likely produce a committee substitute for
SB 125 (cost share of retirement liability) very soon.
House Finance has already scheduled SB 125 (pending
referral) for a Saturday hearing at 10:00 am. SB 123
(retirement plan fix-it legislation) passed the Senate last
week and is scheduled for a hearing in House Finance on
Thursday, April 19 (See Calendar). To view either bill
please go to
www.legis.state.ak.us/basis
Here you can enter “SB 123 or SB 125” in the bill root box
and you can get information such as the entire text of the
bills.
HOUSE
JUDICIARY – HJR 9
The
House Judiciary committee met for five hours today and
despite testimony from NEA-Alaska and many others the
legislation moved from the committee on a 5-2 vote.
Judiciary Chairman Jay Ramras (Fairbanks) took exception to
NEA-Alaska stating there were far more important issues to
be decided by the legislature over the next 29 days. Later
Rep. Ramras told Channel 2 news reporter Bill McAllister
that he would recommend the House Leadership not scheduled
the bill due to the significant amount of work that needs to
be accomplished before adjournment. Go Figure. You can
view the story at
www.ktuu.com if you do it quickly. You have to go
to the “Juneau Bureau” section and click on “same-sex
benefit debate continues.”
The
next LCS will be published on Thursday, April 19th. As
always, If you know anyone who wishes to receive the LCS/Legislative
Update, please send us an e-mail with their home e-mail
address if possible, and we’ll add them to the growing list
of K-12 education advocates!
Bill
Bjork, NEA-Alaska President
Lydia Garcia, NEA-Alaska Interim Executive Director
John Alcantra, Government Relations
|
