August 21st, 2024
Hello Colleagues and Fellow Educators.
It’s Ted Chambers here from the R+ Fix Committee. I’m writing because we need your help. We need everyone to reach out to their state representative and ask them to reach out to Rep Aaron Michelwitz. Our bill to fix R+ (H2630) is before the Ways and Means Committee. And because this issue involves a change to a public pension system, the Public Employee Retirement Advisory Commission (aka PERAC) needs to conduct a cost estimate of how much the bill will increase the state’s annual appropriation to the MTRS. Pretty straight forward. But here’s the catch. We need the Ways and Means Committee to make the actual request to PERAC (it doesn’t happen automatically), which is why we need your help lobbying to get it there.
And because new leadership elections will be happening relatively soon, we want the requests to come from the individual reps at the behest of their constituents. In other words, we need the reps to legitimately say to the Chair “Hey, I’m reaching out because I’m getting a lot of calls and emails on this.”
Here is the good news: by itself the estimate on the bill won’t cost anyone anything politically or fiscally. It’s literally the next step in the process and we need it to happen as soon as possible. So it’s a pretty simple and easy ask that will only take you a few minutes - and it will be a huge help to your colleagues who need this.
Here’s the other good news: there are 26,000 of us in this group. If you want to witness a successful example of collective power - please take five minutes to use the template below to contact your rep today.
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I’ll be happy to answer them.
In solidarity,
The R+ Fix Committee
Here is the template:
“Dear Rep ___,
My name is ___ and I am a constituent in your district. As you may already know, when the Retirement Plus program was rolled out in 2001, many educators across the state were left out through no fault of their own. Representative Alice Peisch has filed a bill (H2630) that will allow teachers who were left out to buy back into R+ by paying the principal owed along with some modest interest. That bill was recommended favorably by the Public Service Committee and is currently before the Ways and Means Committee.
Though the bill did not pass by July 31st , there is still at least one very important step that the Ways and Means Committee can take right now to help us advance this process, and that is referring the bill to PERAC for a cost estimate.
Of course it is our hope that this legislation will be passed and signed before the final conclusion of the current legislative session in November. But at the very least if we have the cost estimate from PERAC completed then we will not have to start this process completely over in the next session.
So I’m writing today to ask that you to please reach out to House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michelwitz and request that H2630 be referred to the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission for a cost estimate as soon as possible.
I thank you for your time and attention to this matter."
Sincerely,
Your Name Here
July 20th, 2024
Listen up, teachers, please ... if you are not yet enrolled in MTRS "Retirement Plus (R+)" you will want to contact your legislators to ask them to support House Bill H2630! The bill is still being worked on and we need as many teachers as possible to contact their representative to ask them to support this crucial bill! If you haven't joined the FB group "R+Fix Statewide," please do and scroll through the posts and comments. This is an effort that will be of great benefit to any teacher who is not in R+. Even if you don't need to fight for it, because you're already in it, please contact your rep and urge him/her to support it. Of the Lowell delegation, only Rodney Elliott has signed on to support the bill (you can call/email him to thank him for doing so!). Rep. Vanna Howard is actually on the House Ways and Means Committee right now and they are the ones who will determine where the bill goes next, so please contact Rep. Howard as well!! Below is today's post by Ted Chambers of the R+Fix page to all teachers stating how they can help push this bill forward.
Good morning @everyone. We did some good work this week and I have a short but positive update. The legislature is still working on getting some important issues resolved and passed - and though the time is getting tighter our bill is still 'in play'. Remember that we are still a number of steps away from getting this legislation passed, but we are really looking for is a clear commitment to get this on the final track of going through those steps. Our goal is to get this legislation passed during THIS session (which formally ends in December) BUT...just as important as getting it passed is getting it over the next stage (recommended by the Ways and Means Committee).
What is absolutely critical at this stage is that ALL OF US stay engaged and continue our outreach to make sure that our issue does not get overlooked or passed over. It might bother some of you to hear that - but that is how Beacon Hill works. And that is why our continued outreach and your active engagement is so critical. And the more of us who are actively engaged - the higher the likelihood that we get a resolution for this before the end of this session.
So here is what we really need to do now. Everyone who has reached out to their rep already, we all need to mobilize all of the other folks in this group to get them to do the same in the coming weeks. Here are some action steps you can take.
Reach out to the other folks you know in this group and ask them to email or call their reps - and ask their reps to communicate their support for H2630 sponsored by Rep Alice Peisch to House Speaker Ron Mariano and the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee Aaron Michelwitz. Get as many people as you can to make these calls and send these emails.
Ask your local union president to include a call to action about this issue in their next email blast or newsletter to the members in your district. We need as many folks as we can get to send a friendly communication to legislators letting them know that there is widespread support for a Fair Fix for R+.
Get a group of folks who live in your reps district (whether they work in that school district, live there but work in another district) and have a meeting with your rep and/or senator. Face to face - or on Zoom.
And as always friends, continue to keep your conversations and contact points with legislators and their staff positive, upbeat, and factual.
In solidarity,
The R+ Committee