*PLEASE MAKE CALLS ON BOTH BUDGET AND CHILD CARE ORGANIZING* Gracias!
BUDGET/FURLOUGHS/LAYOFFS
The Senate is still putting together its budget package, and our message is the same: use sensible revenue alternatives like combined reporting on out-of-state corporations before taking money from New Mexico families. We need to keep calling and emailing Senate Finance Committee members listed in previous emails with that message, but there is another group we need to call quickly: Senate Corporations Committee members.
The Senate Corporations Committee is likely going to hear Sen. Wirth's combined reporting bills on Monday. Call the members and ask them to support Senate Bills 389 and 648.
CHILD CARE ORGANIZING
Senate Bill 402 (Cisneros) is on the Senate floor calendar for Monday, and will likely be heard either Monday or Tuesday. We need to flood the following Senators' offices with calls to give ourselves the best chance possible of a) not being dragged into the Senate Finance Committee and b) passing the floor.
If you can only make three calls or emails, please contact Senators Lovejoy, Munoz, and Michael Sanchez.
Please call the following 12 Senators with a simple message:
PLEASE SUPPORT SENATE BILL 402, AND DO NOT SEND IT TO THE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE.
PERA
We just had a major victory late Saturday night, with the House Judiciary Committee voting 7-2 to table HB 573 (Heaton), which would have moved new PERA and ERA employees to a 30 year retirement.
Sisters and brothers, the truth is that there are going to be some changes to PERA and ERA for new hires--it remains to be seen whether it will affect hires made after July 1, 2009 or July 1, 2010. But what your union has been able to do is fight off dramatic, knee-jerk changes to years of service and ensure that we will have a voice in what those changes are for PERA.
There is still one more House bill (HB 798, Berry) that we need to table in order to ensure that there's not a straight 30 year retirement for new PERA hires, and we'll need to flood the House Appropriations Committee with calls once that bill is scheduled.
Instead of tacking on a straight extra five years of work, there are many other options that will get examined over the next year. We believe that some of those options, like changing the vesting period by a few years, will generate far more dollars for the PERA fund while still being fair to employees (remembers, if an employee doesn't vest, s/he gets the full benefit of his or her contributions plus interest back).
One other PERA note: if SB 451 (Ingle) passes, we now will have eliminated a major expense for the candidates we support for the PERA Board because the candidates will be allowed to get electronic copies of the voter file.
To date transferring the hard copy information into electronic form is one of the most expensive and time-consuming parts of our efforts to elect PERA Board members who will look out for the solvency of the fund. SB 451 limits contributions to candidates to $6,000, but with the electronic voter file, continues to allow us to have a strong voice in protecting the fund.
ERA
The Educational Retirement Board, unfortunately, is supporting knee-jerk changes that really don't address solvency issues--the ERB has never had a particularly good sense of how to handle our members' money well. But the good news is that in not addressing those solvency issues they aren't adding to eligibility requirements by very much. The stand-alone ERB reform bill, HB 639 (King) still has a Rule of 80 for hires starting in FY '10, which for many employees still allows for a 25 year (or fewer years) retirement.
In any event, and the reason that making changes right now makes no sense, ERA will be part of a major solvency study this next year, and we'll end up with a new set of rules for new hires starting in FY '11.
Thus far in the session, the K-12 public school unions have been taking the lead on fighting HB 639, because all of their members are ERA. With our victory over the combined PERA/ERA bill last night, AFSCME will be playing a more active role in HB 639.
One of the possible solutions to HB 798 and HB 639 was suggested by Rep. Kintigh last night--make any future changes applicable to hires starting July 1, 2009, but hold off on the specifics of those changes until Rep. Varela's House Joint Memorial 45 study of PERA and ERA is completed this year. The federal government handled pension reform in the same way in 1984, and it shored up the solvency of federal pensions so that everyone had a good retirement.
That way we have time to figure out exactly what the extent of the need for reform is and to figure out solutions that will protect PERA and ERA for current and future retirees, but we'll also be committing to addressing the problem with the next wave of hires.
ARBITRATION
As expected, the Senate Finance Committee continues to sit on SB 164 (E. Griego), and may never get heard at all. However, HB 15 (Speaker Lujan) is already through one Senate Committee and is awaiting hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the Senate version passed 9-2. Once HB 15 passes SJC, we will have the same battle to keep it out of Senate Finance that we're having with our child care bill.
So even if you don't know much about the child care organizing bill, please call the above list to keep it out of Senate Finance. One of the real benefits of a victory on child care is that we'll set a precedent for fighting off the arbitration bill being dragged into Senate Finance.
Carter Bundy
Political Action Representative
AFSCME International
1202 Pennsylvania St. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87110
(505) 266-2177 ext. 13 (work)
(505) 266-3155 (fax)
