COLA Update
 
Action Needed on Budget Priorities – COLA and Chapter 70 Funding

Both the House and Senate have finished their versions of the FY09 budget.  Now a conference committee made up of three members from each house must resolve the differences.
  
An increase in the COLA base which both the Senate and House included in their budgets and an adequacy study to determine necessary education funding which was included in the Senate budget are at risk of being dropped by the conference committee. These are key MTA priorities.
 
Your  help is needed in keeping these in the final version of the budget that will soon go to the Governor for his signature.
 
COLA Increase
The House and the Senate included language in their versions of the budget that raises the base on which the COLA is calculated from $12,000 to $16,000 for teachers and state retirees. This language does not add cost to next year’s budget since the pension funding schedule is extended by three years. 
The Senate added an amendment that extends the option to raise the COLA base for municipal retirees subject to local approval and in certain circumstances by PERAC.
 
After the House passed this provision, opposition has been building to this fair and just change in the law. The state Treasurer Tim Cahill announced his opposition because he does not want to extend the funding schedule.  The Boston Globe recently editorialized against the provision, as well. The House Ways and Means chair Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) commented that this change may have to be looked at again.  Many mayors and the Mass Municipal Association have opposed the Senate amendment because of concern for the funding liability of local pension systems.
 
Education Funding - Adequacy Study
The Senate adopted an amendment to authorize a study to determine the resources that are necessary for all students to receive a quality education.  It has been 15 years since the Education Reform Act was passed that set a minimum spending amount per pupil for each school district (the foundation budget) and required the state to increase funding to our schools.  It is now time to revise that formula, to update it to include the resources needed to adequately fund our schools in 2009 and beyond. 
In last year’s budget a similar provision which had been included in the Senate budget was dropped because of opposition by the House conferees.
 
Action Needed Now
Emails need to be sent to members of the Conference Committee to insure that teachers, state retirees and municipal retirees receive a COLA based on $16,000 and that the adequacy study is included in the state budget.
Go to www.massteacher.org to send a Legislative Action Alert on the COLA Increase and the Adequacy Study.  (Suggested messages will be provided.)
 

In addition, please send an email to Treasurer Tim Cahill asking him to drop his opposition to raising the COLA base. (There will be a second message provided for the email to Cahill.)   
More state budget updates will be sent to you.
Thank you for your efforts on these issues.
    
Out of State Residents:
 
 Forward this information to your active and retired colleagues who still vote in Mass.

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