House Bill No. 1225, the last piece of legislation needed to provide a 1.5% benefit increase to eligible retirees of the four state retirement systems, and their beneficiaries, becomes law. Governor Jindal held a bill signing ceremony yesterday afternoon for the purpose of signing into law House Bill No. 1225. This bill deals with future accumulations into, and payments out of, the Experience Account held at the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana from which PBIs are paid. The PBIs slated to begin July 1 would not have been payable if House Bill No. 1225 was not enacted into law. Attending yesterdays ceremony were Senator John Alario, president of the Senate, Representative Charles Kleckley, speaker of the House of Representatives, Senator Elbert Guillory, chairman of the Senate Retirement Committee, Senator Barrow Peacock, member of the Senate Retirement Committee, Representative J. Kevin Pearson, chairman of the House Retirement Committee, and Representative Joel Robideaux, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and sponsor of House Bill No. 1225. Also invited, and attending the ceremony, were representatives from the four state retirement systems, representatives from retired state troopers, Mr. Frank Jobert, Jr., executive director of the Retired State Employees Association, and Graig Luscombe, executive director of the Louisiana Retired Teachers Association. This action, taken by Governor Jindal yesterday, culminates efforts of LRTA over the past six years to provide periodic benefit increases to LRTA members. The last PBI was provided on July 1, 2008. Since that time, former LRTA presidents Dr. Hugh Craft, Dr. Lonnie Dunn, and Dr. James Taylor, and current LRTA president Mr. James Stewart worked closely with other LRTA state-wide officers and former Representative Jean Doerge, former Senator B. L. Buddy Shaw and Senator Gerald Long to provide PBIs and PBI supplements. Those legislators mentioned sponsored bills on LRTAs behalf over the six-year time frame. Senator Elbert Guillory and Representative J. Kevin Pearson, chairmen of the Senate and House retirement committees, respectively, have also been very involved in the PBI discussion over the years. Their leadership, and their dedication, has served the LRTA membership well as they guided important pieces of retirement legislation, including those dealing with PBIs, through their committees and the legislature. Another important advocate for LRTA members and all retired educators has dedicated countless hours of time to the effort. Mr. Benjamin Sandifer, chairman of LRTAs legislative committee, has been another of your champions. He guided the development of LRTAs annual legislative priorities during this period. The top three LRTA legislative priorities for the past six years dealt with the funding and the implementation of periodic benefit increases for retired educators. Mr. Luscombe referred to these priorities many times during testimony before the House and Senate retirement committees when COLA/PBI legislation was being discussed. Retirement issues, and retirement legislation is often very complex, and sometimes not easy to understand. Ms. Maureen Westgard, director of the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana, and her staff do a notable job in translating these complexities into common terms. They were all closely involved in all the discussions that occurred regarding House Bill No. 1225. She and her staff now stand ready to make adjustments to monthly benefit payments which will reflect this PBI. On behalf of the membership of LRTA, and all retired educators, special thanks is offered to all of you who became involved in the process of communicating with members of your legislative delegation about the importance of this benefit increase, and these two pieces of legislation. The 1.5% PBI granted by the legislature is the maximum it could be based upon the increase in the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) for the 2013 calendar year. Provided below is the article published in todays issue of The Advocate about the bill signing ceremony. The 2014 Regular Session of the Louisiana legislature must end no later than 6:00 p.m. today. LRTA will provide you the next legislative update on Friday. theadvocate/home/9336340-125/retiree-cola-signed-into-law
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 16:00:11 +0000
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