Will paid health insurance for retired teachers eventually go away? Can state afford to maintain benefit?
With all the DeKalb news, I apologize for not getting to House Bill 263 — a bill requiring that retired educators in the future pick up their own healthcare costs — earlier this session since so many of you wrote to alert me to it.
The bill states: A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Subpart 1 of Part 6 of Article 17 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the O.C.G.A., relating to school personnel post-employment health benefit fund, so as to provide that any person who becomes eligible to participate in such fund on or after July 1, 2013, shall pay a premium which reflects the entire cost of such coverage; to prohibit the expenditure of public funds to subsidize the cost of health care; to provide for persons currently eligible; to amend Part 2 of Article 1 of Chapter 18 of Title 45 of the O.C.G.A., relating to the state employees post-employment health benefit fund, so as to provide that any person who becomes eligible to participate in such fund on or after July 1, 2013, shall pay a premium which reflects the entire cost of such coverage; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
I am not the only person who heard a lot about the bill, which is unlikely to advance this year.
“I guess I received more telephone calls about HB 263 than any other this year, so I went and talked to the author, Rep. Chuck Martin, about it,” said Herb Garrett of the Georgia Superintendents Association.
According to Garrett:
The content of the bill was extremely difficult to decipher, and it certainly led a lot people to believe that it would mandate that all retirees pay the full cost of their health insurance (no state funds to pay the employer’s share). Rep. Martin made it quite clear to me that he had no intention of his bill affecting any current teacher or current retiree; rather, he intended that the provisions of the bill only apply to newly hired teachers (those employed after July 1, 2013) and only at their time of retirement (30 years away). All the additional language about how the provisions of the bill might apply to educators who had a “break in service” were also quite confusing, and Rep. Martin agreed that the section containing that language needed a major rewrite.
Now, I don’t think he ever thought the bill would gain much traction, and he’s right. Rep. Martin does feel very strongly, though, that a conversation needs to begin about the financial obligation that the state has to continue to furnish the employer’s share of health insurance for retirees while, at the same time, they have put absolutely no money aside to do it.
For the uninitiated, this is referred to as a government’s OPEB (Other Post-retirement Employee Benefits) responsibilities, and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board has for years required governmental agencies, both state and local, to either put aside money to cover those benefits or make a public declaration that they are aware of them (but, are not putting money aside at this time). Georgia started to put some OPEB dollars away a few years ago (I think they socked away $100 million one year.), but the very next year they used that money for something else (Imagine that!), and the OPEB fund balance stands at zero. Rep. Martin views this as a serious abdication of the state’s responsibilities, and he thinks the issue ought to be addressed. That’s what HB 263 was actually all about.
“To his credit, the sponsor sheds light on a real problem — Georgia isn’t properly funding post retirement health insurance benefits for public employees. However, we disagree with the approach taken in this proposed solution to the problem,” said Tim Callahan of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators. “At a time when our state is struggling to attract the best and brightest to the teaching profession–particularly in STEM fields in which young employees could make more in private industry — eliminating an attractive benefit sends a contradictory message about how state policymakers value the teaching profession.”
I asked Martin for a comment on his bill and he explained:
First, the bill on the web has a serious defect in that is says the state employees, including teachers, hired after July 1, 2013 would have to pay for the entire cost of the health insurance while “active” and in retirement – this was never the intent of the bill but instead a drafting error.
The intent of the bill as it was meant to be drafted was to have state employees, including teachers, hired after July 1, 2013, to pay for the full cost of their healthcare in retirement when they become eligible as currently defined in the system because, in my opinion, continuing to add people to an underfunded system endangers those currently in the system.
The bill raises issues that are worth discussing. Among the many emails and letters on House Bill 263:
<blockquote>I checked to see if your paper had written anything concerning HB 263 and found nothing. It is obvious that this bill will ensure that only the least talented educators will seek employment in Georgia. I foresee a time soon if this bill is passed that Georgia will have the lowest educational rankings in the United States. Could you please research this situation and write an article about it?</blockquote>
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
164 comments Add your comment
Google "NEA" and "union"
March 7th, 2013
1:00 pm
MaryElizabeth is convinced (yet again) that ALEC is under her bed at night?
Time to remind everyone that the union drum she’s beating is paid for by all those members of the union’s local manifestation: the Georgia Association of Educators. The extra $168 they cough up yearly for the “honor” of being in the NEA bankrolls that union’s partisan-Democrat politics.
ref: http://goo.gl/rtJIZ and http://goo.gl/bNdPt
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
1:11 pm
The state should stop paying supplement to health care insurance. These payments are not paying for health care. It’s paying for that CEO guy at United Who-Cares to get $100 million dollar salary + $99 million in stock. For one person. Your tax dollars at work.
Mary Elizabeth
March 7th, 2013
1:21 pm
@ Edugator, 12:40 pm
You are most welcome.
—————————————————————————————-
@ Google NEA
I must have struck a nerve because I have alerted the public to the fact that Rep. Chuck Martin, the sponsor of HB 263, is a member of ALEC’s Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Force.
I simply think for myself, and I always have. No one pays me to voice my opinions.
Readers, again, please read the excellent article, which exposes the intent of ALEC, in the link I provided at the end of my previous post.
Google "NEA" and "union"
March 7th, 2013
1:26 pm
Puerile Citizen, Karl Marx just wasn’t hugged enough by his father.
The resulting anti-capitalist bunk he peddled to the world’s malcontents … is just that. Eastern Europe long since has come to realize this. Why don’t you?
Dennis
March 7th, 2013
2:08 pm
If there is any justice about the goals of ALEC, it is this; the downward results of it will affect the children of those who are promoting it just it will affect the children of those who oppose it.
Simply because children are born into comfort doesn’t mean they will themselves always live in comfort.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
2:10 pm
NEA bluh bluh you make a leap to Marx? You know that Marx loved guns like a kid with a Rifleman magazine. You ought to look it up. Marx was from a different era. Read some Emile Zola and get back to me. Zola is still relevant today and a lot less talked about.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
2:15 pm
NEA bluh bluh, If you think we’ve got capitalism today, you left out the part about competition, in a system of competitive capitalism. Btw in european business schools, they teach that there is no such thing as a free market whereas in the US, you get the simpleton’s version at college. Free Market Capitalsim, you know, like Microsoft Windows. That make be a little too complex a concept for you, your single-company per market “free market” communism.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
2:23 pm
Or when 4 companies own all of the radio and tv stations, so workers can choose between Hannity and Limbaugh, or between Limbaugh and Hannity, both of them pumping the same incoherent bunko. Or they can go to Wolf Blitzer on CNN for the real truth. Capitalism you’ve got. Free markets? Ugh, no. Unless “regulatory capture” is your idea of a market, where the major media all sing the same song, no challenges accepted or denied. They don’t even exist. At least we can surveille the interwebs and put people on a list for surprise! at the airport. Explanation? None required.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
2:26 pm
NEA bluh bluh, Who do you pay for internet service, Company A, or… Company A? Now, go and lecture me about markets, you freedom fighter, you.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
2:30 pm
Google “NEA” and “union”, You’re just a communist in sheep’s clothing and you don’t even know it. No surprise, here in the land of egotism + knowledge. At least you can throw around a 200 year old buzzword instead of actually looking at the business environment around you. The raw vitality of it! The level of entry activity for entrepreneurs! The best is that you use your single market titans as source of government advisement for education! The ultimate progression – in reverse!
10:10 am
March 7th, 2013
2:38 pm
@ Puerile Citizen: Have your psychiatrist review your medication dosage. Really.
@Google “NEA”: If you’re fairly new here, the above character has a long and boorish history of taking up column inches—apparently as therapy? Most of us ignore him. You should, too.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
2:41 pm
Dear NEA / union, for your amusement from a Swedish perspective, “Let’s be fair and give USA a few more years to get things into full swing!” http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles/Skog_USNotEastGermany.htm
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
2:46 pm
10:10 When you spend ten minutes working as an educator, kindly inform so that one may provide you support. Meanwhile, commence harpiness on various libertarian perspectives circa Sarah Palin 2008. I get it now. You two want to keep your $10. in your wallet and pay no taxes and call it “civic concern.” You’ve got that “Bill O’Reilly logic” thing down.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
2:49 pm
10:10, You can even work in the private school. It’s okay. But get some experience – somewhere. Isn’t there a golf forum somewhere needing a kibbitzer? You can do double duty.
kibitz: To look on and offer unwanted, usually meddlesome advice to others.
but I respect your opinion, within context.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
2:56 pm
Dennis, There’s an old anecdote about the proper Asian businessman who moves the family away from all they know and ancient family connections to move to the USA for executive business reasons, and the daughter ends up rebelling and becoming a drug addict / stripper. Sounds harsh, but it is an existent anecdote. Know of at least on “very proper power family” where the kid goes haywire. Ever seen a thirty year old with severe shaking hands from alcoholic withdrawal delerium tremens? the “DTs” usually reserved for “old people?” You’re right, children of these families pay pay pay.
10:10 am
March 7th, 2013
2:56 pm
Note to psychiatrist attending @Puerile Citizen: I’m a retired K-12 teacher, as has been noted in my previous posts.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
3:06 pm
10:10, Oh wow, that is first news to me. Thank you for providing context.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
3:10 pm
10:10 Okay you get the coupon book for making snide rejoinder. I still think you and “NEA/union” ought to read Germinal. I’m certain it is available online, although the best translation might be in print. Let’s have a look. This should be superb, translated by Havelock Ellis, no less! http://www.eldritchpress.org/ez/germinal.html
You know, there is just no getting around it, tablets and e-readers will be the way of the future for reading this type cultural information.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
3:12 pm
Or if you prefer to read it in French, as written by the author. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5711
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
3:13 pm
We recommend, however, the translation by Stanley and Eleanor Hochman, in the Signet Classic paperback edition (ISBN 0-451-51975-2), because its English is more contemporary and in a few cases is closer to the vulgar French of the original.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
3:16 pm
OH NO!!!! The Movie with no subtitles and voice-over in SPANISH! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFs0LCnW-lM
10:10 am
March 7th, 2013
3:17 pm
@Puerile Citizen: I hope it helps with your therapy to know that you aren’t alone! in making frequent use of the excellent Gutenberg website.
Now take your meds.
OriginalProf
March 7th, 2013
7:32 pm
It is somewhat disheartening to realize that the issue of maintaining benefits for retired public school teachers means so little to Private Citizen that he/she fills up this blog with unrelated chitchat, and squabbles endlessly with 10:10 am.
It makes a difference to the teachers, if not to you.
bbear
March 7th, 2013
7:44 pm
I am a teacher and have always paid social security. I am also forced to put over 6% of my pay(and going up every year) into the state’s teacher retirement system. What’s next? They say they can’t afford to pay me back that money( MY money) either? I would gladly opt out of SS and TRS if I had a choice. At least I could control my own destiny. People who think we have a union, a sweet retirement we don’t contribute to, and awesome insurance are very misinformed.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
8:18 pm
Original Prof, I am prime recipient exhibit A of these very “benefits,” but I do not believe that teachers should have a a health care system that students and parents (or the plumber.. or auto mechanic.. or brick layer… or window washer) do not get. That’s what I believe and it comes first for me before my own comfort. I do not do that “you’re either in or you’re out” system of public services. I guess “I’m out” until the USA joins the rest of the rich world – the other 99 countries, and everybody gets a fair serving. Meanwhile, no want to exploit. Sometimes I say, “I was raised in the church and apparently I’m the only one who takes it seriously.” The meek shall inherit the earth, haven’t you heard? Meek – like me. (that’s supposed to be a joke).
And really, I do not like being around teacher peers who have their behind covered and therefore have zero political mind on the topic, I’m sure that you agree. When was the last time you knew of a teacher getting paid health care supplement who gave a cat-litter-box about anyone else who does not have the same “arrangement?”
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
8:21 pm
Original Prof, I stated my position pretty clearly at the beginning of the thread. Otherwise, it’s called playing the violin while Rome is burning.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
8:25 pm
Original Prof, Actually, the novel Germinal is pretty darn central to any conversation about the haves and the have-nots, if anyone actually cares to be literate and have a point of reference. As in, it is maybe the most important single work on the subject in 100 years? I did not post it out of irrelevance to the topic.
Private Citizen
March 7th, 2013
8:50 pm
I can not believe I paid in all of that money to United Health Group and the CEO pulls a $100 million dollar salary and I have nothing from them now, but they got enough money from me to pay cash for a small house or pay for two university degrees. I see how this works – a little too late.
Mary Elizabeth
March 7th, 2013
8:56 pm
Excerpt from my 12:20 p.m. post:
“Part of political tactic is to divide and conquer.That tactic, evidently, has been working as can be read in the comments on this thread, in which some workers of private firms are against teachers receiving benefits, such as healthcare, which are paid by the government. Actually, those private sector workers should be working with public sector workers to insure that workers in both the private and public sectors have healthcare benefits secured for themselves, especially in their older years.
Do we really want a nation in which we have no Social Security in our old age, or no Medicare in our old age? Do we really want a nation which has become totally privatized in which the middle and working classes will be forced into working for wealthy CEOs for less and less income as the years go by, with fewer and fewer benefits? That type of political framework is called a plutocracy, not a democracy.”
===============================================
Bill Moyers: “Left unanswered, where does this vast inequality take America?”
One of the journalists who answers Moyers’ question is Chrystia Freeland, author of the recently published book, “Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.”
View Freeland’s response in video below, entitled, “Full Show: Plutocracy Rising.”
Link: http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-plutocracy-rising/
OriginalProf
March 7th, 2013
9:24 pm
@ Private Citizen.
You don’t seem to understand that for many decades public school teachers have had a healthcare system (SHBP) which they did indeed pay for themselves, monthly. It wasn’t just given to them. And part of the agreement that schools made with these teachers when they were hired was that though their salaries would be low, their healthcare through SHBP would continue after retirement, because of the teachers’ continuous contributions made before retirement. Then in 2008, the Governor took $220 million of SHBP’s funds and put them into the state’s general fund. This has never been repaid, and now the SHBP is bankrupt.
And this HB 263 appears calculated so that the state can wash its hands of any responsibility for its teachers’ healthcare insurance after they retire.
As I recall, it was the vicious, incestuous Emperor Nero who played the violin while Rome was burning, supposedly set by the Christians though actually by Nero. Do you really mean to compare your blogging here to that?
OriginalProf
March 7th, 2013
9:27 pm
@ Private Citizen.
I think that Zola’s novel “Germinal” is not so relevant to the discussion here as Aesop’s “Fables,” specifically the dog in the manger: he could not eat the straw in the manger himself, but he did his best to keep the other animals from eating it.
Teachers..a dirty word
March 7th, 2013
10:10 pm
Oh how I wish I could have had a crystal ball twenty five years ago when I went into teaching to see my future today. Under appreciated, disrespect, misunderstood, furloughed, overworked, under insured, “Teacher Keyed”, and now losing my retirement benefits. I owe it to all high school seniors considering teaching as a career field in Georgia to “run, run, as fast as you can” away from that idea. My how things have changed. It used to be considered a calling to be a teacher. It’s definitely a calling….. name calling.
Mary Elizabeth
March 7th, 2013
10:17 pm
Thank you for your 9:24 p.m. post, Original Prof.
I would only add that this attempt to take away medical insurance from retired teachers is happening not only in Georgia’s legislature, but also in Republican-dominated state legislatures throughout the nation. It is a highly orchestrated effort, imo, and it is only one part of the Republican ideological movement which has been pushing, for decades, to dismantle governmental benefits and programs that have served middle and working class families well. Government programs have helped upward mobility of the classes, in years past, in our nation. Today, upward mobility for the classes is almost at a standstill.
“In the 1970s the rishest Americans possessed about 9 percent of the nation’s total wealth. By the mid-2000s, that number had jumped to almost 25 percent. One particularly staggering statistic Freeland offers is that in 2005, the income of two men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, nearly equaled the wealth of the entire bottom 40 percent of the U.S. population (some 120 million people). Meanwhile, CEO slaries have skyrocketed while average workers’ pay has barely budged. In the 1970s, CEOs made about twenty-five times the salary of their average employee. Today, the ratio is 230:1. This despite the fact that American workers are more productive than they have been in decades. . . .The wealthy have succeeded in skewing the rules in their favor. ‘America’s super-elite,’ Freeland asserts, ‘has been particularly effective at using the tools of a political democracy to protect its minority privilege.’ ”
From: “How the Rich Hurt the Rest of Us” (A review of “Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else” by Chrystia Freeland) by Jake Whitney, “The Progressive,” March, 2013, p. 44
Mary Elizabeth
March 7th, 2013
10:34 pm
@ “Teachers. .a dirty word,” 10:10 p.m.
“Oh how I wish I could have had a crystal ball twenty five years ago when I went into teaching to see my future today. Under appreciated, disrespect, misunderstood, furloughed, overworked, under insured, ‘Teacher Keyed,’ and now losing my retirement benefits.”
==================================================
Please read my 10:17 p.m. post and I believe that you – and readers – will understand that what you are now seeing happening to the teaching profession in Georgia (specifically, on this thread, about HB 263 regarding teachers’ retirement healthcare benefits) is, more than likely, not happening by accident but by orchestrated design. Again, I will point out that the author and sponsor of HB 263 is Rep. Charles E. “Chuck” Martin, Jr., a member of ALEC.
sneak peak into education
March 7th, 2013
10:37 pm
@Google/NEA – You constantly harp on about unions but I have to wonder why you never address the fact that the states which are unionized almost always are the ones that are most successful when it comes to educating our students while the states that are right to work usually lag at the bottom of heap. Why do you think that is? Why portray unions as the big bogeyman? Looks like you are trying to create the straw man here while, at the same time, sounding like an obsessive maniac.
I have to wonder if you were around in the late 1800’s – early 1900’s would you have decried the unions for their work to end child labor (how dare the unions stop little Johnny from working in the mill-it builds character); help in the fight to gain the vote for woman (what? they want to have a say in running the country they live in-they should stay in the kitchen and not worry their tiny, little heads with such manly stuff); help to secure a working week for the workforce with weekends off (I can’t believe that people can be so lazy and want to have time off with their families. How dare they steal this valuable time from the kind and generous man who agreed to employ them). I could go on but I think you get the gist.
Mary Elizabeth
March 7th, 2013
10:37 pm
Correction within my 10:17 p.m. post: “richest” not “rishest”
First grade teacher
March 7th, 2013
11:03 pm
My argument for those who see teachers as ‘takers’ undeserving of health care benefits is this. I have never earned a ‘bonus’ for performing my job well. Stock options or profit sharing are not available to me when my ‘company’ (school system) does well. Over the 33 years that I’ve been teaching I’ve seen the employer contributions to healthcare drop significantly and I’ve absorbed more and more of the cost. I earn now what many in the private sector earn in their first 5 years on the job. Don’t talk to me about paying my fair share like everyone else unless you’re willing to pay me a wage that’s comparable to what ‘everyone else’ is earning.
Private Citizen
March 8th, 2013
3:37 am
Covering the tough questions here.
Nea/union, All you have to do is watch the first five minutes of the Gerard Depardieu “Germinal” movie to see the need to worker unions to protect workers, although I will agree that in the United States worker unions have been appropriated for the means of something else besides workers. It is like the same folk that have appropriated school accreditation, have appropriated privatisation schemes (like water in some places?) have also appropriated unions and treat the member workers just as dumb as Arne Duncan treats school kids. The main point is that when the centralised ownership of media, there is no voice that can get through to the land, no counterpoint. One wonders if this technique has been done before, across hundreds of years. It seems to be out of a playbook. When I telephoned the monopoly internet provider, on the telephone there is a commercial for pay-per-view tv programming for wrestling “Lock Down” before acces to the telephone menu. They’re such wise guys with their merciless psy-ops. Add to that “SLO” testing for elementary students, it seems like a taunt.
Original Prof, Part of my hard heart is that maybe I have seen some things before. More than a decade ago I saw a friend of mine at a service job at a state university get privatised, where he did all the work and his dummy area manager at twice the pay would check in on him for unpleasant “performance review.” I’ve seen college republican students put into administrative power on a campus, so the first thing they did was remove the community classes (extra cost to university, about 100k per year). It took them five years to figure out that the community had been paying a half million dollars per year for fire department services for the university, and that the community wanted their informal classes back.
Just recently I’ve seen one of my students get into very bad trouble, and surprise! my recent former principal just got screwed around. I don’t know which is worse, big power or these seedy school districts with their little masterminds who have seized the revenue streams, like flies to a lightbulb. DeKalb is a nice start, but it doesn’t even began to address the state-wide activity of this kind.
I wonder what Mr. Elgart’s (sp?) salary is? I am guessing $400k per year. And I’m pretty good at guessing. Does anyone know?
Private Citizen
March 8th, 2013
3:47 am
Mary Elizabeth, the problem with Moyers is that he does the soft voice NPR drone. I’ve seen him speak in person, too. Excellent journalism, but his call to action is about like sending you to the sleep store for a new pillow !!! Anyone more direct would not get any bandwidth from the major medias.
Private Citizen
March 8th, 2013
3:49 am
ahem.
“Mark Elgart, when not scaring the pants off of local school boards, draws a paycheck of more than $350,000 from his Alpharetta-based non-profit, Advance Education Inc.” http://atlantaunfiltered.com/2011/04/11/mark-elgart-accreditation-boogeyman-355024/
non profit?
Private Citizen
March 8th, 2013
3:55 am
That was in ‘08, which would put it right… at… about… 400k for today…
http://www.atlantaunfiltered.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/advance-education-inc-2009.pdf
Mary Elizabeth
March 8th, 2013
7:29 am
Private Citizen, 3:47 a.m.
Bill Moyers does have a “soft” style, and he is an excellent journalist. It is the content that he presents that is important. Moyers focuses on critical issues, such as the growing plutocracy in our nation. The average citizen must become aware of this phenomenon because the middle/working class worker is deliberately being manipulated not to see what is happening, which benefits primarily the wealthy, powerful few, imo.
It takes many voices, not just the voice of Moyers, to alert the average citizen of the growing inequality between the classes in America. Balance must return to our nation. As I shared in my first post on this thread, retired teachers’ purchasing power stablizes the overall economic impact of their communities. The public (government) sector has an equal role to play, along with the private sector, in bringing economic equality back to our nation for all citizens. All citizens should voice their concern that the public sector not continue to be diminished, starting with not stripping retired teachers of receiving, in their elder years, the benefits that they have paid into all of their working careers.
bootney farnsworth
March 8th, 2013
7:56 am
@ Mary Elizabeth
“Brevity is the soul of wit” William Shakespeare
for the love the God, enough already. please take your nonsensical utopian socialist ramblings to the daily kos, move one , or even hannity.
its taking more and more time to scroll past them to get to cogent comments. and at my age, its time I don’t have to waste.
bootney farnsworth
March 8th, 2013
8:05 am
@ OP
like you, I have a dog in this fight, so I fel your concern/pain. and like you I was less than amused with this.
however, I strongly doubt this will gain traction anywhere other than maybe inititating a conversation with cooler heads.
-there are just too many of us who vote for them to ignore
-the state is long known for its scare tactics
-the political winds in Georgia are shifting from hard republican to a more middle of the road stance.
I agree its important to be vigilant, but I’d not get overly concerned. just yet, anyways.
10:10 am
March 8th, 2013
8:43 am
@ blabney feignsworth
Reality check: After Puerile Citizen, you are the worst offender when it comes to cranking out non-cogent ramblings the rest of us scroll past.
You both should get a life. Preferably far from an Internet connection.
OriginalProf
March 8th, 2013
9:16 am
@Private Citizen, March 8th, 3:37 am.
Most of us who have been adults for awhile have seen worse things than that. But then why are you so indifferent to this case of the state stealing health insurance funds pooled by schools and their teachers for the teachers’ retirement healthcare? That was the workers’ money, not the states’ money. And now the state wishes to pass a law absolving itself of any future responsibility for those teachers’ retirement healthcare.
From all of your other posts. I would think that you would protest this injustice that is close at home. Or has the fact–shared at length several times on this blog–that you have been fired from your teaching post in the past made you secretly pleased at this fate for elderly teachers who continued on in the profession?
Dennis
March 8th, 2013
9:18 am
What’s emminating from the governor and the state legislature is wealth envy/retirement envy of teachers and state employees.
These politicians didn’t want to be teachers because it didn’t pay enough and they thought they were going to make a killing in politics and the business world.
A low paying teachers job was not for them. They were all going to become independently wealthy!
And, somehow, that wealth didn’t happen, so they’re taking their frustrations out on teachers and other state employees by getting at their retirements and health benefits.
OriginalProf
March 8th, 2013
9:24 am
@ bootney. No, I don’t have a dog in this fight. As I noted earlier here, USG employees usually don’t choose this healthcare option because the Regents subsidizes our healthcare to the tune of 75% of the insurance premium. I am not a member of the State Health Benefits Plan.
Mary Elizabeth
March 8th, 2013
10:41 am
bootney farnsworth, 7:56 a.m.
What you must understand is that I do not write simply for you. In fact, it is precisely in the heart of the Conservative South – which often is not exposed to the progressive thoughts which I post – where my thoughts most need to be communicated. Obviously, you do not share my vision. However, know that your insults do not concern me. They reflect more upon the quality of your mind than they do upon mine.
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” ― William Shakespeare
I plan to continue attempting to alter the destiny of this state and this nation for the better, through my voice. As for my perceptions of you, I’ll quote another line from Shakespeare, from “Hamlet,” “The (man) doth protest too much, methinks.”
OriginalProf
March 8th, 2013
1:18 pm
In my post yesterday at 12:13 pm, I gave some figures on the Reserves held by the SHBP in 2008 and 2010. I now realize that this issue involves far more than the funds held in Reserve, but also SHBP’s Assets, Liabilities, and so on. The losses by SHBP are far more than the $320 million I noted there. As the Georgia State Retirees Association notes:
“In less than 2 years [2008-2010], the SHBP cash basis trust funds have gone from a well-funded $884,846,177 (including partial funding for OPEB) to a negative $(195,986,701) (without any OPEB funding);
· The SHBP accrual basis trust funds (considering IBNR claims) reserves have decreased from $661,957,177 in 2008 to a negative $(1,095,54,878) in April 2010;
· The cash basis trust fund declined $93,110,924 ($-102,875,777 to $-195,986,701) in one month (March to April, 2010);
· $1.1 billion has been cut from the SHBP funding during FY 2008, FY 2009 and 10 months of FY 1010.”
Source: http://www.mygsra.com/shbp-changes