Tuesday, April 24, 2012

State retirement this week

There are many very important issues related to state retirement before the Louisiana Senate this week. In fact, the massive increase in contributions to retirement, the changes in dates related to retirement eligibility, and the ending of traditional retirement programs may be voted on early this week.

I cover this in some detail in my inaugural "Talk About the South" column in the Hammond Sunday Star: "Devil has had the money long enough" http://www.hammondstar.com/articles/2012/04/23/opinion/columnists/8294.txt
(Related numbers:  Rep. Chris Broadwater (985-543-4900), Rep. Steve Pugh (985-386-7844), and Sen. Mack White (225-272-1324).)

Here's a link to my letter in this morning's Advocate. The editor said I hit all of the major issues: http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/2649968-123/letter-jindal-retirement-changes-just

For a take on what happened yesterday at the La. Senate, see veteran journalist Tom Aswell's piece: http://louisianavoice.com/.

To stay informed on retirement issues, I have listed a number of web sources below:

Fight Back Louisiana: https://www.facebook.com/groups/109118642507269/
Pension Fight Club: facebook.com/groups/pension2012/
LA Pension 2012: https://www.facebook.com/pension2012
Louisiana Pension Bulletin Board: http://www.pension2012.org/
Louisiana Voice: http://louisianavoice.com/
CB Forgotston: http://forgotston.com/
Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana: http://www.trsl.org/main/
LASERS: http://www.lasersonline.org/site.php

Get to know why Louisiana is broke, tax breaks for a few, a Legislative Auditor's report. This document helped me understand where the money has gone and one reason we are in a budget crisis. This is an outrage.: http://app1.lla.state.la.us/PublicReports.nsf/E9F217C786FEEE56862579B30065B41C/$FILE/0002737B.pdf.

I write this as a Louisiana citizen, not as an employee of any state agency.

Please pass this along.

Thank you.

Dayne Sherman