Louisiana committee OKs bill to bar teachers unions from public pension system By Lauren McGaughy, NOLA | The Times Picayune At-a-Glance: The House Retirement Committee on Thursday (March 20) approved a bill that would bar any future employees of four organizations, two of them teachers unions, from also being members in the state public pension system for teachers. The bill: House Bill 45 is sponsored by state Rep. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge. The bill would block any future hires of four organizations from being able to become, or remain, members of the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL). The four organizations are Louisiana Association of Educators, Louisiana Federation of Teachers (both teachers unions), Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana and Louisiana Resource Center for Educators. Members discussed amending the bill before it reaches the House floor to allow teachers on leave who join these four organizations to be allowed to stay in TRSL. For example, LAE mandates its president be a teacher on leave. The bill wouldnt impact its current President Debbie Meaux, because it would only apply to future hires. But when her term expires and if she wanted to run again to head the union, she would lose her membership in TRSL under this bill. The debate: Talbot said the staffers of these four organizations are not educators and therefore should not receive a public pension as if they are. The boards of TRSL and LSERS, which manages pensions for public school employees that arent teachers, remained neutral on the bill. LFT Legislative Director Mary Patricia Wray testified against the bill, noting a number of other unions and private associations can remain members of the public pension system. For example, staff of the Louisiana Sheriffs Association can be members of the Sheriffs Pension and Relief Fund; staff of the Assessors Association can be members of the Assessors System. As an LFT staffer, Wray could have opted into TRSL but chose not to. Committee member Sam Jones, D-Franklin, opposed the bill. He called attention to the bills actuarial note that shows removing these members from TRSL would not reduce costs for the system. In fact, the note shows revenues would fall since fewer members would be paying into TRSL. The vote: The bill PASSED by a vote of 6-3, largely along partisan lines. The three representatives who voted against included: Sam Jones, D-Franklin; Jack Montoucet, D-Crowley; Ed Price, D-Gonzales. Next step: Heads to the full House. The voice: They dont work for the state. Its not a state agency. -- Talbot How many votes are we going to take to punch out people just doing support services ...for this state?...Nobody wants to fight you, except maybe me. -- Jones This bill is incredibly unfair and unjust. -- Wray This is a political conversation...Its aimed at making people not want to come to work at these organizations. - Wray Bottom Line: Its unclear whether this bill will pass; last year, the same effort passed in the House but Talbot said there was no time to hear it on the Senate side. The political climate indicates conservative lawmakers will support it. Read more: The Senate Committee also decided to postpone votes on legislation to sweep any investment gains for three of the four public pensions systems, after a cost-of-living payment is granted, to pay down system debt. Ashley Davies Communications Specialist
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 18:57:06 +0000
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