Who ya gonna call?

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Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs

Senator Rosen (R) Chairs the powerful appropriations committee. If it passes there it lives, if it gets changed there it is changed. It is very rare that anything can go far without the stamp of the chairman and the committee.


If you need to know who to reach, reach out to these committee members. It will be more than the governor is doing according to some sources. The Republican Senators and Representatives are growing more and more tired of the my way or the highway form of government. Let them know what is bad about this budget, what hurts, what can be fixed.

I think this is the complete list. I don't think many members of the appropriations committee realize that the Governor's bill would prevent State Employees from offering any concessions to offset any reductions in pensions or benefits.

The only thing he is allowing concessions on is towards Merit raises or Longevity. If you have Longevity payments now he is proposing to take it away again. This is as much as a 2% cut to many employees. A 2% cut, with a 2% increase in pension payments, and who knows what kind of take aways he plans in the current contract negotiations.

State Employees know where the waste is hiding and it is not in the pensions we have coming. The pensions are deferred compensation, payment in the future for less pay today. We paid for the pensions, we will pay for the pensions. Ask the members of the appropriations committee to negotiate directly with us, we are tax payers too.

Our kids, State services, the elderly, and the trust the citizens in Maine should be able to have in their government is at stake.  

Late Edit: 
 I sent the following letter to all members of the appropriations committee. I look forward to their answers. (Full Disclosure: I edited one spelling error)

I will keep it short.

Thank you for the work you do for the Citizens of Maine. I know what we pay you, and it is not enough.

Why does the governor’s budget specifically ban State Employees from offering pay or benefit concessions to offset the budget? Did you know that?

Senator Rosen said that according to his information the 20 year average C.O.L.A. to State Employees was 2.85% and reflected the inflation rate.

Why would the pension plan be permanently prevented from going over 2% if not an attempt to punish (Union) retirees?

Why are there NO representatives on the committee to study the closure of Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center except for those with a vested profit motive for closing the institute?

Why can representatives receive a State Pension and a State paycheck, while other employees may not? By extending that to current employees at this time, the State could provide a ZERO cost retirement incentive and allow the State to hire employees with many years of experience at huge savings.

Confidential employees, like the Governor's daughter pay ZERO towards their pensions. Isn't that an unfunded liability?

Most State Employees will have their Social Security cut by up to 70% regardless of how small their pension is.

Why has the governor refused to meet with any Union Representatives?

Thank you for your time,

I look forward to your response.

BREAKING HEADLINE!!!

Check the comments section for breaking news on the budget. The Pension system is much better than reports have shown. The trustees are making a tremendous return. Click here.

Senator Richard W. Rosen (R-Hancock), Chair

rrosen113@aol.com

Home Tel: 469-3779/ Cell: 944-5091

Senator Roger J. Katz (R-Kennebec)

RKatz@lipmankatzmckee.com

Home Tel: 622-9921/ Cell: 485-2394

Senator Dawn Hill (D-York)

SenDawn.Hill@Legislature.Maine.Gov

Home Tel: 337-3689

Representative Patrick S. A. Flood (R-Winthrop), Chair

patricksaflood@roadrunner.com, RepPatrick.Flood@legislature.maine.gov

Home Tel: 395-4915

Representative Tom J. Winsor (R-Norway)

twinsor@megalink.net, RepTom.Winsor@legislature.maine.gov

Home Tel: 527-2233

Representative Kathleen D. Chase (R-Wells)

kathydhchase@hotmail.com, RepKathleen.Chase@legislature.maine.gov

Home Tel: 646-2118/ Cell: 468-9747

Representative Tyler Clark (R-Easton)

tyleraclark@msn.com, RepTyler.Clark@legislature.maine.gov

Home Tel: 488-2633/ Cell: 227-6971

Representative Kenneth Wade Fredette (R-Newport)

fredlaw@myfairpoint.net, kenneth.fredette@post.harvard.edu

Home Tel: 368-4242

Representative Dennis L. Keschl (R-Belgrade)

keschl@yahoo.com, RepDennis.Keschl@legislature.maine.gov

Home Tel: 495-2973 / Cell: 441-3701

Representative Margaret R. Rotundo (D-Lewiston)*

mrotundo@bates.edu

Home Tel: 784-3259

Representative John L. Martin (D-Eagle Lake)

RepJohn.Martin@legislature.maine.gov

Home Tel: 444-5556

Representative David C. Webster (D-Freeport)

dcwebster@comcast.net, RepDavid.Webster@legislature.maine.gov

Home Tel: 865-4311

Representative Sara R. Stevens (D-Bangor)

RepSara.Stevens@legislature.maine.gov

Home Tel: 942-8900

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State Retirees to see $6000.00 tax increase or 100% loss of health care.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

State Retirees to face $6000.00 tax increase or 100% loss of health care.


Governor LePage said that future retirees can expect to pay a portion of their retirement until they reach 65 and are eligible for Social Security. Governor LePage’s definition of “a portion” is 100%.

This Statement shows duplicity, ignorance, or both. Very few State Employees will qualify for 100% Social Security benefits. Many have never paid in to the system, and those that have most face up to a 2/3 cut in their S.S. due to the Federal tax on State Retiree Social Security benefits called the “Windfall elimination” provision. Simply put, if you get a State pension, they confiscate your S.S. because the Feds wanted to have that money to spend.

If a State Employee has only worked for the State they do not qualify for Medicare and their State promised health care is the only care they can expect when they retire. They may have no S.S. to look forward to. My projected S.S. is about $150.00 a month.

The Governor recently encouraged State employees to "retire now" by putting through a budget that would deny them negotiated health care benefits until 65 years of age, effectively slapping a $6000.00 penalty on their retirement while denying them an annual raise to keep up with inflation. (Commonly referred to by Republicans as a tax)

What happened to the "no new taxes" promise from the Tea-Party backed candidate?

The average pension of a retired employee is $19,000.00 before taxes. If a spouse wants to have a survivor get their pension if they die the pension is reduced by up to 20%, now the pension is $15,200.00.

Under LePage’s plan, if an employee retires before they reach 65 they will pay the full cost of their health care, approximately $6000.00, if they want their spouse covered the cost is about $250.00 a month, more if you have a younger spouse, more again if you are 62 and you might live longer. Then at 65 when the employee ages into the full payment of health care, the Federal need to pick up Medicare part B kicks in, at about $125.00 a month for both of them, a $3000.00 annual cost.

Between 62 and 65, a retiree’s pension could be reduced by $6000.00 not including the cost (100%) of the spousal coverage and if a child under 26 is included in family coverage, cost raises to nearly $5200.00 more. Retirees face a potential cut of up to $6000.00 a year under just the governor’s plan, up to $11,200.00 if they want to cover family. Do the math. A retiree’s pension is reduced to $7,800.00 and all before taxes kick in. This will not encourage State Employees to retire before 65.

This is how Governor LePage plans to deal with the budget. He will send employees out to live on a $7,800.00 pension, deny any adjustments for three years, and then guarantee an inflation adjustment smaller than the average inflation rate for the last 80 years.

To add further insult to injury, under the current system if you retire you must take your health care or lose it forever, so those that are forced to stay in the workforce past 62 must live in fear of losing their jobs for the next three years because if they don't spend the $600.00 a month for themselves and up to $5200.00 for their families they will lose the benefit that they may have worked for, for over 30 years. This is a threat coveted by an administration hostile to labor, a hammer the administration wants to wield over an aging workforce.

Maine is trying to drive employees into a retirement they cannot afford, while the governor has proposed a nearly 10% increase in spending taken directly from employees and retirees.


Blame the employees.


Maine under LePage is not only committing theft, but also trying to ignore the reality that pensioners, are our friends, neighbors, and fellow Mainers who earned their retirement by trusting their State.

The pension obligations are not nearly as overwhelming as they have been painted, with Maine's fund increasing nearly a Billion dollars through shrewd investing in just one year.

Instead of taking real steps to research the problem and find real savings, in a lust for Union blood, the new Governor is trying to blame the victims.


Unions in Maine have not been asked for input. Would they accept changes for new employees in the same way as our sister state of Vermont or that Left wing, all Democratic state California?

In many States through bargaining, State legislatures have utilized the knowledge of their employees to find savings, and employees have negotiated higher monthly pension contributions, retirement incentives, and current savings by such novel ideas as having State agencies bid on jobs against private industry.

Can we find savings in Maine?

We may never know. It is not in the nature of this ex CEO's to seek any opinion but his own.

It appears he believes he can send a memo to both the employees and the legislature to do as he says.


A CEO may be able to run a company efficiently and make the trains run on time, by giving orders, but a legislature jealously guards its role and rights. As a CEO, the Gov. has had no experience dealing with opinions other than his own. The Maine legislature is a great believer in education.


There has been no dialog with the Unions. There have been no talks with the Republican leadership. It appears that Gov. LePage is trying to govern with no input. He has not sought out employee Unions, has not talked with the legislature that must run for office in two years. This may be the hope for Maine, Maine has a Republican majority but they are one of three co-equal branches of government and the legislature does not take orders from any other branch.


Employees would welcome a conversation with the Gov. but there has been no attempt to involve employees or their Unions. There are numerous possible partial fixes to the pension problem. Some ideas are a temporary increase in pension deductions, a temporary reduction in pension adjustments until the economy improves even more furloughs or voluntary temporary pay cuts. I know employees could suggest far more ideas to reduce the impact of permanent pension cuts or the prospect of having no health care in retirement, while there wages will continue the wage freeze they have been in for years, even taking proposed cuts. These employees have far more motivation to solve the State’s problem with pensions than any other group.


It seems as if Gov. LePage’s goal is to permanently cripple Unions and retirees, while ignoring the budget, and trashing the full faith and trust of the State of Maine.

The Federal court system will clog with lawsuits questioning the legality of reducing pension benefits and breaking contracts that retirees believed they could trust.

Rather than face this expense the State should work with the current employees and retirees to develop a system to protect their security and provide a predictable future.

Current employees will be taking a hit, but the worst impact from refusing to listen to State employees, freezing, annual increases, and lowering them permanently to less than the rate of inflation, is to get revenge on State employees that have voted Democratic while they are older, sicker, and more vulnerable.

The loss of spending from retirees in Maine and the employees fleeing Maine’s income tax on their already taxed pensions will more than offset any savings, all in the name of telling them to “kiss his butt”.

A fact the governor does not acknowledge is that the pension States expected revenue has increased nearly $300,000,000.00 due to increased consumer spending and increasing tax revenues, an increase the governor moved immediately to wipe out by increasing spending over 7.8%.

This is not just a Maine governor’s idea, this is a national trend funded by large corporations intending to make the U.S. the cheap labor source for their new market, China.

Until now, Congress has had little authority over state handling of their pension accounts, but in the Republican Congress the idea of letting States declare bankruptcy on their debts and wipe out all pension obligations has been repeatedly floated. These new laws would leave the employees with no pensions while still repaying 100% of any Wall St. debt.


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The State of the Unions

Image via Wikipedia

Connecticut

May 8, 2008

Twenty Nine bargaining units, which signed off on the

SEBAC agreement, agreed to a wage freeze this year

and a 2.5 percent wage increase in each of the

following years.

New York

June 5 2009

ALBANY — Gov. David A Paterson and the state’s public employee unions announced an agreement on Friday that would reduce pension benefits for future public employees

The Governor gave the unions significant incentives and dropped earlier demands for concessions from current employees.

One critic said the agreement shows the power of the state employee unions, whose workers this year beat back a pay freeze, a one-week furlough and then layoffs.

Vermont

June 04, 2009

Floyd Nease, Majority Leader in the Vermont House released this statement in response to the Vermont State Employees Associations filing of an injunction to stop the firing of state workers:

The Governors determination to fire our state workforce regardless of the impact on services to Vermonters is irresponsible and may well be illegal. The legislatures budget makes it clear that firings of this magnitude should undergo scrutiny and be accountable to Vermonters. The administration has clearly overreached. I applaud the VSEAs efforts to stop it.

When times are good workers in the private sector mock State Employees for working for their low wages. When times were good and stock options, profit sharing, bonuses, Christmas bonuses were all the rage, my salary was a joke. I got a much lower salary, a couple of more holidays and a pension. When the economy fell, the private sector folks who were living high, think my salary is a fair target.

I want to keep my job and take care of my family. I believe government has a valuable and necessary place in providing some services to our society; Government should always try to be efficient and responsible with our citizen’s dollars.

How about instead of cutting state jobs for publicity and votes, why not make cuts that make sense? Why not work to reduce duplication in state agencies, and why not remove the administrative overload that any state employee can point out?

Irony

May 6, 2009: Governor Jim Doyle declares May 6, 2009 as State Employee Recognition Day and thanks state workers for their superior efforts.

May 8, 2009: Governor Jim Doyle announces layoffs, furloughs, and pay cuts for state employees.

The cry continues to say good riddance to State Employees State employees didn’t create our state’s budget deficits

Mainers should remember that these are not faceless bureaucrats in Augusta. These employees investigate consumer complaints, prison guards, parole officers, issue driver’s licenses, monitor air and water quality, provide safe homes for abused children, and so many important jobs. They are your neighbors, family members and friends who inspect our bridges and roads to make sure we are safe for us and our families.

We work for you, we respect you; please don’t take cutting our pay or putting us out of work lightly.

Starbucks buckles under, Settles Another Labor Dispute.

Jun 02, 2009

Starbucks just settled the sixth labor dispute in three years! According to the settlement, Starbucks must now allow Minneapolis-area workers to discuss unions and post union materials in break areas, and the company can no longer kick union sympathizers out of its stores.

Starbucks routinely prevents employees from working enough hours to qualify for the company's health insurance. When, workers attempt to remedy this problem by forming a union, Starbucks violates labor laws by firing or intimidating them, going so far as to actively oppose the Employee Free Choice Act.

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