March 30, 2011. Many bills flying through committees, FRS pension changes include 3% “tax”/employee contribution, Elimination of DROP
Day 26 of the 2011 Legislative Session
(March 29, 2011)
Since there are so many bills going through committees this week, this Frontline will have a Reader’s Digest type update on the plethora of proposals that were heard today in the various committees:
House PreK-12 Appropriations
HB61 Code of Student Conduct by Rogers. This bill has been heard for at least the last three Legislative Sessions – affectionately called the “pull up your pants” bill. The bill would require school districts to adopt dress code policy that would prohibit students from wearing clothing that “exposes underwear or body parts in specified manner.” The bill passed the committee unanimously.
HB1331 School Choice by Bileca changes the classification of a failing school from a school receiving two “F’s” in a four-year period to a school that has received a “D” for two school years in a four year period or an “F” for one school year in a two year period for the purposes of student eligibility for the Opportunity Scholarship Program. Parents will also be able to choose higher-performing public school in any other school district in the state, but parents will be responsible for transportation unless they choose a school within their assigned district. The bill passed the committee along party lines.
House K-12 Competitiveness Subcommittee
KCO3 Florida College System – This bill will eliminate continuing contracts for community/state colleges – another anti-tenure bill but this time for higher education faculty. It does not address university faculty tenure. The bill passed the committee along party lines with Republicans voting for the bill and Democrats voting against the bill.
HB 255 Parental involvement and Accountability in the public schools by Stargel was work-shopped – meaning discussed but not on the agenda for a committee vote. The Florida PTA spoke against the bill saying that teachers should not be required to “grade” parents, yet the committee and public agreed that parental involvement was crucial to a student’s success in school. Stargel stated that she wanted to find a way to identify problems and better target resources to help students. Laudable goals- and we have to applaud her effort to bring the issue of parental involvement into education reform debate!
House Civil Justice
Here we go again – the people who want vouchers to send their kids to private religious schools have brought back the so called “Religious Freedom” amendment which would end “discrimination against the Catholic Church.” HJR 1471 “deletes prohibition against using revenues from public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.” HJR 1471 by Plakon boils down to this: taxpayer money could be used to pay for private religious education. The bill passed along party lines, with the Democrats voting against the bill.
House Session
7087 Education Law Repeals was discussed by the House – the full House vote will likely be tomorrow. This bill repeals obsolete or underutilized programs that are in current law, including: Digital Divide Council in DOE, false claims of academic degree or title, pilot project for discounted computers & Internet access for low-income students, Institute on Urban Policy & Commerce, adult literacy centers, Florida Literacy Corps, Preteacher & Teacher Education Pilot Programs & Teacher Education Pilot Programs for High-Achieving Students, Critical Teacher Shortage Program, Florida Teacher Scholarship & Forgivable Loan Program, critical teacher shortage tuition reimbursement program, Critical Teacher Shortage Student Loan Forgiveness Program, Merit Award Program for Instructional Personnel & School-Based Administrators, and, middle school student requirement relating to end-of-course assessment, and professional service contracts for current first, second, and (possibly) third year instructional staff.
Senate Rules
SB 1504 Initiative Petitions by Simmons- you may recall all the ballot amendments the 2010 Legislature tried to put on the ballot and in the end the Court found that the language of the ballots were confusing and misleading. The Legislature did not like that “judicial meddling.” Why shouldn’t they be allowed to confuse and mislead voters? They are duly elected officials, by golly! This bill would allow the Secretary of State – who is appointed by the governor – to revise “the wording of the ballot title or ballot summary for an amendment to the State Constitution that proposed by the Legislature when the wording is found by a court to be confusing, misleading, or otherwise deficient.” In other words: if the court doesn’t like the language the amendment, the amendment won’t be taken off the ballot, rather the Secretary of State would simply re-write the summary.
Budget balancing act
During the 2010 election, you heard candidates promising not to tax hard working citizens. Well, when they talk about hard working citizens it must not include public employees, because they are going to be taxed to do to fill budget holes.
When discussions began last fall about reforming FRS, we exposed the motivation behind the bill: balancing the state budget.
Now, legislators are no longer pretending. Public education employees are being taxed to run our schools.
The overall cut to education funding is over $1 billion from last year. Let’s break that down into how to zero that billion out:
$500 million through 3% employee contribution to FRS + $450 million through changes to COLA = $950 million
If they close DROP to new members they’ll have another $124 million. If they raise the retirement age that’s another $168 million. Add it all up and you have a balanced budget… without sharing the sacrifice across the voting population… and without enraging the Tea Party.
The Senate position on overall numbers for education reveals a better policy. This is true in both the K-12 sector and the higher education sector. In broad terms, the Senate places more funding in education and criminal justice. The Senate is more aggressive in cutting health care spending. The House spends more in health and human services and general government (roads, environment, etc). While the education spending proposals are fairly close, the overall budgets of the two chambers are farther apart with the Senate spending $3.3 billion more than the House.
House Position Senate Position
Per Student funding ($ 467.13) ($423.27)
FRS employee contribution 3% 3%
Total Education Funding $19.8 billion Almost $21 billion
Total overall funding $66.5 billion $69.8 billion
FRS pension changes within the budget bills: SB 7094
Here’s Pat Dix’s “down and dirty” summary of the Senate Budget Bill 7094 which will ultimately impact retirement:
1. Requires a 3% employee contribution by all employees, effective July 1, 2011.
2. Provides for the mandatory participation of new hires on or after July 1, 2011 in a defined contribution plan.
3. Vesting for current employees remains at 6 years (no change). For employees hired on or after July 1, 2011 (and will be forced into defined contribution plan), vesting will be phased in at a rate of 20% per year for 5 years (i.e., vesting in the employer share of contributions to the defined contribution plan).
4. Health Insurance Subsidy (HIS):
a. No changes for current employees (vested or not) who are hired before July.
b. No changes for current retirees
c. Continues HIS for new employees hired on or after July 1, 2011 (who will be forced to enroll in the defined contribution plan).
5. Phases out COLA for employees hired on or before June 30, 2011. Changes the COLA formula for FRS pension plan retirements so that service credit for COLA earned on or after July 1, 2011 is excluded. No change for current retirees.
6. Eliminates DROP effective July 1, 2011. No changes for current participants who will be allowed to continue to agreed upon DROP completion (usually 5 years).
7. Changes average final compensation (AFC) for all employees hired on or after July 1, 2011 (and who will be forced into the defined contribution plan) to
a. Eliminate annual leave and sick leave from computation of AFC,
b. Eliminate overtime payments in excess of 300 hours from computation of AFC,
8. Retirement eligibility remains unchanged for current employees. For new employees hired on or after July 1, 2011, retirement eligibility becomes age 62, or 6 or more years of service.
Reminder: the April 7 Rally in Tallahassee has been postponed. Alternatives are being considered by the Labor Table, including the April “4 We Are One” local events.
Questions? Call FEA Public Policy Advocacy at 850.224.2078