April 20, 2010. Fate of faculty pensions could be decided in a Conference Committee meeting to take place on Wednesday, April 21, Let legislators know you don’t want FRS altered!
Dear Colleague:
It is possible the Legislature could decide on the fate of faculty pensions tomorrow in a meeting of the Conference Committee, which makes the final decisions. Contact your legislators now.
See below for contact information and an update from our affiliate, the Florida Education Association.
Tom Auxter
President, United Faculty of Florida
Conference Committees began meeting yesterday, April 19, 2010 and are scheduled to continue meeting into the coming weekend. We are still hearing only rumor and innuendo regarding how Conferees will handle FRS retirement issues. FEA continues to closely monitor retirement issues pending in the remaining two weeks of the 2010 Session of the Florida Legislature.
This morning the Government Operations Conference Committee held a meeting where Conferees indicated that they were informed that the health insurance subsidy bill, H.B.5701 (Rep. Rivera, R-112, Miami), and the FRS bill, SB 2022 (Senator J.D. Alexander, R-17, Lake Wales), will be bumped to the overall Conference Chairs. The Conference Committee meeting schedule released yesterday shows that outstanding conference issues will be bumped to overall Conference Chairs on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 1:00 p.m. And by the way, the overall Conference Chairs happen to be Sen. Alexander and Rep. Rivera.
You help is still needed throughout these Conference Committee meetings. Keep the pressure on your legislators about these issues by calling or emailing to let them know that they must defend and protect the public employee participants in the Florida Retirement System.
Contact your Senators and Representatives and urge them to oppose any changes to FRS retirement benefits. Urge your Legislators to tell Conference Committee members not to balance the budget on the backs of public employees and retirees.
Urge your Legislators to tell Conference Committee members that they are opposed to any changes to FRS retirement benefits.
Senators: To find your Senators, go to www.flsenate.gov and look for “Find Your Legislators” at the bottom of the menu on the left side of the web site.
Representatives: To find your Representatives, go to www.myfloridahouse.gov and click on the heading that reads “Find Your Representative” right below the blue bar and the red bar at the top of the page.