Legislature leaves school retirees empty handed…again

(Texas Alliance for Retired Americans)

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled against the issuance of $500 checks to Teacher Retirement System retirees, which had been authorized conditionally by the legislature in May. 

"Retirees, who have not seen a cost-of-living increase since 2001, are once again left empty-handed," said Linda Bridges, Texas AFT president. "To dangle this money in front of retirees, then have it snatched away because someone used the wrong words in a bill is disgraceful."

Abbott said the legislature really gave him no choice in the matter, because of strings attached to the modest $500 bonus payments.  The legislature said the $500 checks could not be paid out unless the attorney general issued a "conclusive opinion that such one-time payments are constitutionally and statutorily permissible." Abbott zeroed in on the word "conclusive," defining its meaning as "irrefutable" beyond question, and said it's obvious that there's at least some legal question about the matter, as evidenced by the legislature's request for his opinion in the first place. In other words, he said, the legislative provision "on its very face makes it impossible for us to conclusively opine that such payments are 'constitutionally and statutorily permissible.'"

The history of this legislation makes it clear that the true author of today's decision is not so much Attorney General Abbott as it is Sen. Robert Duncan, the Lubbock Republican who chairs the Senate State Affairs Committee. Last spring Duncan made no secret of the fact that he never wanted to issue a bonus check in the first place. Hence he saw to it first that the amount was cut from the House-proposed $1,000 to $500. Then for good measure he crafted the legislative language that led to today's decision to kill the bonus checks entirely.

"Thanks to Sen. Duncan, I guess the only thing conclusive about this legislation was that it left retirees waiting and wondering where their checks were while the attorney general pondered his decision for six months," Bridges said.

The money for the checks (about $120 million) will now be used to increase the state contribution rate to the Teacher Retirement System a smidgen. But that little bump up in the state contribution rate will be a small fraction of the amount needed to enable the pension fund to deliver a true cost-of-living increase to retirees. Meanwhile more than 200,000 retirees and their families receive no cost-of-living adjustment again this year--eight years after the last catch-up cost-of-living increase, years during which they have seen the real value of their pensions eroded about 20 percent by inflation. 

Texas AFT represents more than 63,000 teachers, paraprofessionals,

support personnel, and higher-education employees across the state. Texas AFT is affiliated with the 1.4-million-member American Federation of Teachers.

--Elaine Jones, TARA activist from Corpus Christi