Senate Republicans Reject Efforts to Eliminate Unfair Reduction in Group I Employees’ Pensions
Contact Name: Marina Altschiller
Phone: (603) 271-3375
CONCORD - Today, the Republican majority sent SB 434 to Interim Study. SB 434, prime sponsored by Senator Kevin Cavanaugh (D-Manchester), provided for the application of the statutory recalculation of a Group I (employee or teacher) retiree’s annuity at the member’s full retirement age under the federal Social Security system, rather than at age 65.
After the vote, prime sponsor Senator Kevin Cavanaugh (D-Manchester), Senator Cindy Rosenwald (D-Nashua), and Senator Lou D’Allesandro (D-Manchester) issued the following statement:
“Our state agencies are facing workforce vacancy rates of between 20-40%. One of the biggest incentives for employees to join, and subsequently stay in, the public sector is the benefits. However, our Group I members have been getting hit with a 10% reduction to their pension once they turn 65. For over 20 years now, this reduction has occurred due to the increase of the social security retirement age to 67. That means that right now, a $30,000 pension becomes a $27,000 benefit at age 65. Changing the language to “the members full retirement age for Social Security” would have fixed that reduction.
The Republican message that this will negatively impact Granite Staters is absolutely unacceptable and a blatant falsehood. The people who are negatively impacted are the Group I state employees, the majority of whom are women, who currently are seeing their pensions decrease for no logical reason. It is extremely disappointing that our Republican colleagues believe it is appropriate to significantly decrease our state retirees’ pension for two years, particularly while the state struggles to fill open positions.”
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