PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO YOUR MEMBERSHIP

 

Below I have broken down the changes made to the NH retirement system specified in SB3 the “Bradley Bill”. I have tried to put the changes in layman’s terms so all can understand. I urge you all to read the bill to view the entire content.

People have asked if this is a done deal. Officially the answer is no. This bill was sent to the senate finance committee for an evaluation then it will go to the House. We are basically at the half way point for this legislative session. The House and Senate will cross over their version of Bills that have passed on their respective floors. Then we will begin to testify all over again on these bills.

 

I will not sugar coat this, we are up against it. Clearly they have the votes to pass these bills. The fat lady may not be singing but she is surely warming up. So with that said Senate Bill 3 passed on Wednesday – with a 19-5 vote. As you can see they voted along party lines (19 Republicans – 5 Democrats).

 

In essence they passed a bill (in the Senate only – this in NOT LAW YET) that makes sweeping changes to the “promise” the state has made to each and every contributing member of the NH Retirement System. For those working this means:

 

·         Work till age 50 with 25 years of service. For those “vested” there is no change. For those under ten years below is a sliding scale:

(1) Less than 4 years - 24 years of service; retiring at age 49; with a 2.1% multiplier.

(2) At least 4 years but less than 6 years -23 years of service; retiring at age 48; with a 2.2% multiplier.

(3) At least 6 years but less than 8 years- 22 years of service; retiring at age 47; with a 2.3% multiplier.

(4) At least 8 years but less than 10 years -21 years of service; retiring at age 46; with a 2.4% multiplier.

·         Average detail pay over 7 years. For All.

·         Average final compensation over 5 years. For those starting employment after 7/1/2011.

·         Paying 1% more in contribution rates commencing 7/1/2011 - 10.3%; and 7/1/2012 - 11.3 %.

The democrats introduced several amendments:

 

·         100% rule – Retiring at 100% of base pay only

 

·         Board of Trustees – Changing the makeup of the Board of Trustees to switch power from member to State and local control. Lowering the board from 14 member to 10 members removing 1 member from each employee group. (removes 1 police, 1 fire, 1 teacher and 1 state worker representative)

 

·         $89 million transfer – Taking 89 million from the Special Account and transferring it to the corpus of the fund to alleviate employer contribution rates.

 

·         Return to Work -  Allows retirees to return to work after retirement in part time capacities. This allows Chiefs to retire and work part time jobs in some cases eliminating retirement system positions by converting their full time jobs to part time. When this happens moneys of the highest paid employees will no longer go into the system, and movement within the ranks will become non-existent.

 

·         New Hires – Sweeping changes for new hires.

 

Each of these failed 19-5 except the Return to Work amendment that passed by voice vote.

 

·         Senator Houde introduced a motion to table the bill until the Senate could hear from the Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of the bill. This motion failed 19-5.

 

·         Senator Carson introduced an amendment to remove the Contingency and Severability clause from the bill. This passed by voice vote. – This vote was the only one that went in our favor. This removed the “penalty” if the employee groups chose to sue over these unconstitutional changes.

 

Additionally, the House passed their version of the retirement reform bills

 

·         HB231: passed 188-120 (roll call vote) - Relative to payment of medical benefits for state retirees, their spouses, and dependents. Changing the $65.00 per person contribution to $100.00 per person for State retirees.

 

·         HB461: OTP motion was overturned 215-88 (roll call vote), and then voted OTP without amendment 229-75 (roll call vote) - Relative to repealing the authority for retirement system members to purchase service credit for certain out-of-state service. This will disallow employees coming to NH from other states and purchasing their service time. This Bill did nothing to help the system. It hurt it! The state and the employers paid no monies to the fund when an employee purchased out of state service time. The burden was on the employee. Again they have continued to choke off the inflow of funds into the system.

 

·         HB464: passed 220-80 (roll call vote) - Requiring the transfer of certain retirement system group II special account funds to the state annuity accumulation fund. The State plans on raiding the special account transferring $89 million from the special account into the corpus of the fund to alleviate employer contribution rates. They are trying to steal from us again.

 

We are not done strategizing and resisting these changes.  We will need you all to come out again in numbers at certain points in time which we will notify you of. We will need people to testify. We will need you to call your Reps and Senators. Again we ask that you are professional and respectful. If you need assistance in talking points I have attached the side-by-side analysis of both the Bradley and Kurk Bills and the position of the NHRSC.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions.

 

Steve

 

Attachment	Size
BradleyKurk comparison.pdf	1.27 MB
NH Retirement Security Coalition Talking Points.pdf	1.39 MB