This Bill Will Cut All Public Educator Take Home Pay by 2%

Important Notice!

I just got this from the LAE legislative contact system. This bill is being heard in the retirement committee today! Please send an email to the members of the retirement committee if you do not want your take home pay to be cut by 2% just to fund excessive benefits approved for someone else by the legislature. This extra assessment is an unfair "tax" on present employees that they will never benefit from. I suggest you use the LAE contact system from the link at the bottom of the article.

The House Retirement Committee will hear bill today to increase employee contribution rate and reduce benefits.

HB 57, if passed, will increase the employee contribution rate by 2%. However, the additional employee contributions will not be credited to the employee's TRSL account. Instead, the additional 2% will go to the unfunded accrued liability of TRSL accrued after July 1, 1989.

In addition, HB 57 would increase the period over which pension benefits are calculated. In a defined benefit, such as TRSL, the benefit is determined by multiplying the number of years of service by the benefit factor (a fixed percentage of pay) by the “final average salary.”

HB 57 proposes to increase the period used to determine your "final average compensation" from 36 months to 60 months. This will result in a reduction of your retirement benefit or require you to work longer to achieve the same benefit. This change alone could reduce a TRSL member's retirement benefit by as much as 4.5%.

Since, HB 57 would apply to current employees, HB 57 would violate the obligation of contract. HB 57 alters the benefit aspects of TRSL for current employees, thereby, violating the Louisiana Constitution, and therefore also violates the contract you and your employer agreed to upon your participation in TRSL.

Contact House Retirement Committee Members today and ask them to oppose HB 57.