Act Now to Help Preserve State Health Care Benefits
All state employees, retirees and their families need to work to help prevent drastic cuts to our ERS health care benefits. You can do your part by contacting and communicating effectively with legislators and other state leaders immediately.
TPEA has recently informed state employees and retirees about this immediate threat to our healthcare benefits. It is important that all concerned state employees and retirees get involved to help prevent or limit any cuts to our health benefits.
As TPEA previously explained, we are facing the prospect of two cuts to our benefits, the first because of an unexpected budget deficit in the ERS health plan, and the second because state leaders are requesting all state agencies to implement an immediate 5 percent spending reduction plan to help prevent expected fiscal problems. TPEA understands the need to be fiscally responsible, but the combined impact of these two reductions will be drastic and unreasonable cuts to our health benefits, and will impose a disproportionately large and inequitable financial burden on state employees and retirees.
TPEA is asking all concerned parties to use the contact information contained below to respectfully communicate with your two local legislators (your State Senator and your State Representative), with Governor Perry, Lt. Governor Dewhurst, Speaker Straus and with the other members of the Legislative Budget Board.
We are at the beginning of election season, so this is a time when elected officials should be sensitive to their constituents’ concerns.
Please contact the suggested legislative and leadership offices by phone, letter or email, or try to meet with them in person. The more contacts and communications, the more effective we can be, so keep it up until we have some resolution of this issue.
As always, do not use state time or equipment to advocate with legislators. Please communicate respectfully, as anger will be counterproductive. The main points to communicate are:
- State employees and retirees are proud of their public service and have helped to make Texas state government the most efficient in the country.
- State employees and retirees have worked hard and sacrificed financially to maintain our health benefits, including giving up pay raises to preserve our health benefits, and retirees haven’t seen any retirement increase in almost ten years.
- Ask for the legislator’s or state leader’s commitment and support to prevent excessive and unreasonable cuts to our ERS health benefits. While it is fair to ask for widely shared sacrifices to help resolve state fiscal problems, the one half million state employees, retirees and their families under ERS will experience unreasonable and disproportionate financial impacts from the combined cuts.
- Ask to leave your contact information and request that they inform you of their position on this issue and tell you what they are doing to try to prevent excessive and unreasonable cuts to ERS health benefits.
The legislators and state leaders to contact are:
Governor Rick Perry
(512) 463-2000 or (800) 252-9600
http://governor.state.tx.us/contact/assistance.aspx for email link
Mailing Address
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
The mailing address for Lt. Governor Dewhurst and State Senators is:
The Texas Senate
PO Box 12068
Austin, TX 78711-2068
Lt. Governor David Dewhurst
(512) 463-0001
http://www.ltgov.state.tx.us/contact.php for email link
Senator Steve Ogden (R-Bryan)
(512) 463-0105
steve.ogden@senate.state.tx.us or
http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist5/dist5.htm#form
Senator Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock)
(512) 463-0128
robert.duncan@senate.state.tx.us or
http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist28/dist28.htm#Form
Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston)
(512) 463-0115
john.whitmire@senate.state.tx.us or
http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist15/dist15.htm#form
Senator Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo)
(512) 463-0121
Judith.zaffirini@senate.state.tx.us or
http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist21/dist21.htm#form
The mailing address for Speaker Straus and all House Members is:
Texas House of Representatives
PO Box 2910
Austin, TX 78769-2910
Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio)
(512) 463-1000
joe.straus@speaker.state.tx.us or
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=121&rep=joe.straus
Representative Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie)
(512) 463-0516
jim.pitts@house.state.tx.us or
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=10&rep=jim.pitts
Representative Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville)
(512) 463-0640
rene.oliveira@house.state.tx.us
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=37&rep=rene.oliveira
Representative Dan Branch (R- Dallas)
(512) 463-0367
dan.branch@house.state.tx.us or
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=108&rep=dan.branch
Representative Sylvester Turner
(512) 463-0554
sylvester.turner@house.state.tx.us or
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/email.php?dist=139&rep=sylvester.turner
If you are unsure who represents you in the Texas Senate and House, follow this link: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/ to find your Senator and Representative and then use the contact information on their web pages to communicate with them.
Watch TPEA’s website www.tpea.org for special event announcements and to read about TPEA’s future schedule.