Retired Teachers Lobby Day
April 20, 2020 9:00AM - 2:00PM.
Old Judiciary Room, State Capitol Building, Hartford, CT
We urge all to attend as this is the most important interaction with representatives in Hartford. The issues continue to be the funding pens and healthcare funds in addition to determining the calculation of our COLA.
ARTC PAC
ARTC/Political Action Committee
ARTC PAC, though a part of ARTC, must remain separate from ARTC. This committee endorses candidates on the state level, raises and spends money in support of our candidates. ARTC cannot spend money on candidates or politics, but must endorse candidates chosen by PAC. Since we spend lots of money on candidates and political issues that affect retired teachers,
we need to continually raise money.
Go to http://artct.org/artc-endorsement/ for more information.
Legislative News
Additional Information
Upcoming Votes -
Contact your legislators before June 5 about two upcoming state bills:
- Vote YES: Senate Bill 873 proposed by Shawn Wooden, State Treasurer, designed to strengthen the State Teachers Fund. Read the text of the bill at https://www.cga.ct.gov/2019/TOB/s/pdf/2019SB-00873-R00-SB.PDF
- Vote NO; House Bill 7150 which shifts teacher pensions to local city/town.
Find your local state legislators: https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/menu/CGAFindLeg.asp
Read the article from the News-Times: How to Fix Teacher Pension Funding by Sean Goldrick
Social Security Bill Proposed
2019 Social security Fairness Acts proposed in Congress urge repeal of the Government Pension (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination (WEP), the GPO prevents a retired teacher from collecting his/her spouse's Social Security and the WEP drastically reduces Social Security benefits for those teachers who worked outside of teaching.
The Two present bills to repeal these unfair laws are: In the House the bill is House Bill HR 141. In the Senate, it is Senate Bill S.521.
To contact the Representatives in the U.S. Congress by email, you must go to their web site on the Internet. Once on their official site, a form will be available to send a message. It is best to contact your Representative since you are his/her constituent and you will receive a reply. Calling at the DC office or the local office, you will speak with an aide. Your message will be tallied and conveyed to the Representative or the Senator. Whether you email or call, including a persona message on how you are affected by either or both of the GPO/WEP is important.
Search for and Contact your Connecticut State and U.S. Legislators:
Legislative Information
Legislative News
YOUR TAX EXCLUSION IN JEOPARDY
Contact your Legislators and House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz to remind them:
* Teacher pension skyrocketing costs are not the fault of retired teachers. The State underfunded the teacher pension for more than 70 years.
* Retired teachers have been assured again and again that the legislature would keep their promise. To renege on the tax exclusion law for retired teachers is a broken promise to 36,000 retired teachers who have contributed to their pensions all their working years and depended upon their pension during their retired years.
* The tax exclusion law was passed four years ago for fairness. Since teachers pay into their retirement system the same as others pay into Social Security, the law begins to address an unequal taxation of teacher pensions. The tax exclusion law was also passed for sound economic reasons as 26% of retired teachers leave the state retiring to states that do not tax pensions. This is a money drain on Connecticut.
Please contact your Legislators in Hartford and urge them to keep their promise on the tax exclusion. (Your message should not go to your US Congressmen)
You can contact your Legislator by going to ARTC.org - Click on "who should I call" - click on click here.
Joe Aresimowicz is the Speaker of the House and it has been reported that he thinks that Teachers Retirement Income should be on the table of budget negotiations. Please call or e-mail his office and express your concerns.
Legislative Office Building, Room 4105
Hartford, CT 06106-1591
860-240-8500/ 800-842-8267
Track Education Bills in the Connecticut Legislature
The following information is being provided as reminder on how to access your bill tracking information. When you access your report you will find the full tutorial located at the top left hand corner under "important messages".
To access your report:
Go to www.ctbilltracking.com/MPG
At this point you can add this page to your favorites.
This is where you will enter your:
Username: mpg-artc
Password: artc6721
Please note your username and password are case sensitive/always use all lowercase