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By Robert Elder
Austin American-Statesman
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
State retirees: What about our increase?
A state retiree group made its case for an increase in benefits at the House Pensions and Investments Committee Tuesday. The Texas Public Employees Association has been making the same case, of course, and its legislative agenda for the 2009 session can be read here.
Until this year, neither retired state employees nor retired public school employees had received an increase in benefits since 2001. In January, the Teacher Retirement System paid its beneficiaries — retired school workers and some higher education employees — an extra monthly check. The so-called 13th check amounted to a one-time, 8.3 percent increase in pension payments.
While the Legislature boosted its funding of TRS to make the 13th check possible, it didn’t increase funding for the Employees Retirement System of Texas. A deal to increase both state funding and employees’ contributions to the system fell apart late in the 2007 session.
As representatives of the retired employees group noted, inflation has been a bear of late, eating into retirees’ purchasing power.
Retired state workers do have one advantage over retired school employees, though: They pay into Social Security, while only about 5 percent of Texas school districts participate in Social Security.