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Permanent COLA Improvement - Increase Annual Adjustment from 50% of CPI to 100% of CPI

Level of Government: State

As a constituent and a politically active union member, I request your support for legislation that will expand upon the permanent COLA law (Chapter 125 of 2000).

The Permanent COLA law that was enacted in 2000 represented a significant first step in protecting the purchasing power of retired public employees who had seen their fixed income pensions diminish over time from inflation. However, current law only provides for an annual adjustment equal to 50% of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Our retirees have worked long and hard educating our children. Now, in their retirement, these public servants are having an increasingly difficult time as food, prescription drug, fuel and health care costs have skyrocketed. Unfortunately, this has resulted in many of our retirees having to make choices with their limited resources that they shouldn't have to make.

The time has come to pass legislation to expand upon the current law by enacting legislation to increase the inflation indexing on annual pensions based on the full increase in the CPI (S.8105 Sen. Connor/A.8369 by Asm. Abbate). This legislation will provide retired public employees with much greater protection from inflation and increase their disposable incomes to help make ends limited ends meet. I urge you to enact this important legislation during the 2008 Legislative Session.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Your Name Here