Texas Public Employees Association wants state employees to be aware of legislative activities and developments affecting your job and career. TPEA is sending this message to our members and to state employees who have participated at TPEA events and given us their e-mail addresses. TPEA also requested and received e-mail addresses as public information from a number of state agencies. If you do not wish to remain on this list, you can unsubscribe by following the instructions at the end of this email. REMEMBER: STATE EMPLOYEES SHOULD NOT USE STATE EQUIPMENT OR STATE TIME TO ENGAGE IN ANY TYPE OF LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY EFFORTS. This message should not be printed, replied to, or forwarded using state equipment, unless allowed by your agency's policies and procedures. |
Vote Today--ERS Trustee Election Ends April 20 TPEA encourages all eligible voters who have not yet voted in the election for Board of Trustees of the Employees Retirement System to cast your ballot for the most qualified candidate, current ERS Board Chair Owen Whitworth. Voting ends Wednesday, April 20, so paper ballots must be postmarked no later than April 20. On-line voting continues through midnight April 20 also. On-line voting can be accessed at http://www.ers.state.tx.us/AboutERS/BoardElection05.htm. Return to Table of Contents. Contact Budget Conference Committee Members The powerful ten-member conference committee that will make final decisions on SB 1, the General Appropriations Act for the 2006-2007 biennium, has been appointed. Composed of five members of the Texas Senate and five members of the Texas House, the SB 1 Conference Committee will make crucial decisions about state employee pay raises, about any changes to employee or retiree health insurance benefits, and numerous other items of importance to active and retired state employees. It is important for state employees to contact members of the SB 1 conference committee, particularly those from the Texas House of Representatives. Be polite and positive, but remind them that state employees have not been granted a pay raise for 4 years, that state pay is 17 percent less than that paid for comparable work by other public and private employers, and that excessive employee turnover caused by low pay is costing taxpayers over $350 million annually. Ask them to support the TPEA proposal for adequate pay raises in both years of the next biennium, as well as the proposed increase in longevity and hazardous duty pay that is included in both the House and Senate versions of the budget. Personal visits to members’ offices or phone calls are the preferred means of contact this late in the session. The following are the SB 1 conferees from the Texas House of Representatives, with Capitol office phone numbers:
In the Senate, TPEA is encouraging state employees to contact conferees and thank them for their support of state employees, and ask them to remain firm in maintaining the Senate version of the state employee pay raises in Senate Bill 1. The following are the SB 1 conferees from the Texas Senate, with Capitol office phone numbers:
Return to Table of Contents. As TPEA has reported previously, the Senate version of the budget closely mirrors TPEA’s proposal for employee pay raises. The Senate approved two 4.5 percent pay raises, with $100 a month minimum increases, which will take effect on January 1 in both 2006 and 2007. The Senate budget also proposes to increase longevity pay to $20 month for every two years of state service, and hazardous duty pay to $10 a month for every year of state service. Importantly, the enabling legislation to change state law to increase longevity and hazardous duty pay, SB 1567 by Senator Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands), has been approved by the full Senate and sent to the House. Return to Table of Contents. Employee and Retiree Health Insurance Update Both the House and the Senate versions of SB 1 maintain the state’s group health insurance plan for active and retired employees essentially as it currently operates. Both versions maintain the state’s insurance premium contribution policy, with the state paying the full premium for active and retired employees, and 50 percent of the premium for dependents. Insurance premium rates will likely increase over the next biennium, although it is not yet known by how much. Active and retired employees with spousal and/or dependent coverage will likely experience higher costs for this coverage, as health and drug costs are continuing to increase at double-digit rates. TPEA will monitor this issue closely and keep our e-mail recipients informed of any developments. Return to Table of Contents. Return to Work Retiree Issues: TPEA has received a large volume of calls from employees who are concerned about proposed changes in law that would affect return to work (RTW) retirees. These changes were recommended by the LBB in its Performance Review report and would have the effect of taking away longevity and benefit replacement pay for current and future RTW employees, and would change accrual and carryover of annual leave as if RTW employees were new employees. These provisions are now contained in six separate pieces of legislation, HB 2416, HB 2773, HB 2976, HB 3450, SB 1574 and SB 1609. TPEA has recommended that these provisions be made prospective, so that they would only impact future retirees who would have a choice on whether to return to state employment with the knowledge that they would not receive these benefits. However, both the House and the Senate budget bills contain provisions assuming that the LBB RTW provisions will be enacted. ERS Omnibus Legislation: The Senate version of the ERS omnibus legislation, SB 1176 by Senator Armbrister, was heard recently in Senate Committee. Possible provisions that TPEA has expressed concern about, that would change the way sick and annual leave can be used to accelerate retirement, were NOT included in the committee substitute of the bill. As TPEA previously reported SB 1176 would make significant changes in standards for qualifying for non-occupational disability coverage; it would eliminate (after the effective date of the provision) the ability to receive credit for Texas Governmental Entity (TGE) service for retirement purposes under ERS (please contact ERS toll-free with any questions about this issue, at 1-877-275-4377); and it would limit the amount of additional service credit that could be purchased after the effective date of the provision to 3 years from the current 5 years (any service purchased before this change goes into effect could be used as current law allows). The net effect of these changes will be to improve the actuarial status of the ERS retirement fund and, hopefully, allow ERS to consider benefit increases for retired state employees. Return to Table of Contents. Outsourcing/Privatization Update The Health and Human Services Commission continues to proceed with outsourcing of certain state functions as authorized in HB 2292 from the previous session of the legislature, in 2003. HHSC has entered into a contract to outsource human resources and payroll services to Convergys, a private contractor. HHSC has also tentatively awarded the contract to outsource integrated eligibility and enrollment services to Accenture LLP, although this is subject to HHSC determining that outsourcing is “cost effective”, and a losing bidder has filed suit to stop the contract from being completed. There are 2 major bills being considered during the current legislative session that would have the effect of outsourcing major state functions and that could result in significant reductions in the state workforce, these are: SB 6 by Senator Nelson/Rep. Hupp, is the omnibus bill to reform Texas’ adult and child protective services, which is one of the high priority items for the 79 th Legislature. However, while the Senate version of the bill authorizes a pilot project to determine if outsourcing CPS case management services is feasible, the House version of the bill mandates rapid outsourcing of case management and substitute care services. Both versions of SB 6 would add new caseworkers and investigators, but the House version of the bill would result in a reduction of over 2,000 FTEs within five years as a result of outsourcing case management and substitute care services. SB 1547/HB 1516 by Senator Duncan and Rep. Isett, consolidates and potentially outsources a number of information technology activities, including state data centers. Information about this initiative is available of the DIR web site at http://www.dir.state.tx.us/pubs/datacenter/questions.htm. The fiscal note on the bill suggests it could lead to a reduction of over 500 FTEs within 5 years. Return to Table of Contents. TPEA Unsung Hero Award Nominations Available TPEA is now accepting nominations for the 2005 TPEA Unsung Hero Award. This is the second year TPEA has sponsored this effort. Individuals and groups of active state employees can be nominated for exceptional contributions to their agencies or for contributing to their community. The nomination form is available here. Return to Table of Contents. |
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