Harper College Adjunct Faculty Association

Bill informed us:

There is a lot of good news:
• In recent health insurance litigation, the courts voted in favor of employees who stated that their pensions would be diminished if the state were to enact Pension Reform.

• It is likely that the courts will find the Pension Reform plan to be unconstitutional. (Unfortunately however, the battle will continue.)

• It is unlikely that the Pension Reform issue will be decided in the next 2 years. (There will be plenty of lead time to decide about whether or not the time is right for you to retire.)

• SURS investments are doing well. SURS has had 3 outstanding years.

• For the past 3 years, the state has been meeting its responsibility with regard to making its retirement payments. (Before then, it had skipped payments in order to subsidize state programs.)

• SURS financial state is improving by leaps and bounds now that the state has been meeting its obligation.

There are still some dangers:
• The state may not continue to make regular payments. It may use the argument that because of the state’s poor financial condition, it needs to diminish benefits.

• Beneficiaries may exceed the number of active workers in the future.

• Employees have been and may continue to retire too early because of unwarranted fear of Pension Reform. (There were 2500 applications for retirement in May and June compared to only 500 in those months in previous years.)

There is something you can do.
• Urge your legislators to pay their bills. It is the right thing to do. Legislators may say that pension plans are unsustainable; that is false.

• Remind them that pension plans are designed as poverty insurance for poverty prevention.

• Stay informed!

(The notes provided here may not accurately reflect today’s meeting. For up to the minute accurate information, go to the SURS website, http://www.surs.org.)

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