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“How can you break these promises,” asked Bevan. Retirees are on a fixed income and “kind of entered into a contract,” when they went to work for the state, said Grove. “For them to come back now and say we’re going to change … that does not seem fair,” Grove said. Bevan worked in several state jobs and finished his career working in information technology. Grove worked for many years in supervisory capacities, including at the
Grove isn’t sitting back hoping for the best. He’s planning to organize fellow retirees in the area to make sure benefits aren’t cut. “I’m going to organize, circulate a petition and set up a meeting with the delegation,” he said. Grove wrote to Sen.
A 35-year member of the
Bevan said that in a previous reform of the system, he chose to put 7 percent of his salary into retirement in exchange for unlimited cost of living increases. That the commission even considered changing that plan bothered him, he said. “They made commitments and promises in good times. Then they back out,” he said.
Plans to raise health care premiums are a special concern, said Bevan, an
Kelly was concerned about current state employees as well as retirees.
“To change the pension and benefit guarantees of current state employees is unjust, unfair and simply wrong, wrong, wrong,” said Kelly on Wednesday. Backing out of commitments to current employees would “destroy state employee morale” he said.
Kelly said he didn’t have an issue with changing benefits for new hires, as long as the rules are set out clearly for everyone. “We don’t want to create a situation where
“Why are we moving so quickly? Why are we not waiting for the final report,” Kelly asked, responding to reports that the legislature will consider interim recommendations issued by the committee in the past few weeks. The commission’s final report isn’t due until
The commission is looking for a way to slash state health care costs by 10 percent. The state is anticipated to be about
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