Methuen Education @ WORK
This time sensitive information cannot wait until the next newsletter. The following highlights are important and directly or indirectly threaten public education. Please read carefully and your action and support is needed now.
v People in Massachusetts are being asked to sign three petitions which would place questions on the state ballot. They are proposals that would reduce or eliminate taxes (a tempting prospect) but will for certain reduce the revenue to cities and towns that support education to already much strained budget. Our benefits including health care, raise increases would most assuredly be jeopardized as well as other much needed services in cities and towns such as parks, roads, and bridges to name a few. The MTA and MEA urge you NOT to sign these petitions. Read the attached handout for complete details.
v Soon you will receive a ballot from Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement Board. It looks like general informational bulk mail. DO NOT THROW IT AWAY! MTA endorses Karen Mitchell. I know Karen personally and she is what the retirement board needs. She would fight for us and advocate for benefits. We need a friend of education on that Board! See attached flyer with a sample of the mailing envelope. Please vote for Karen Mitchell!
v GPO/WEP hearing has been moved to January 2008. Please call or write your congressmen to support this bill. Go to www.massteacher.org to contact legislators easily. You can access their numbers and addresses from there and get sample letters to edit and send. Act now! Correct the wrong and discrimination of our social security benefits for those of us who qualify and to be entitled to those benefits from our spouses. We are only one of the 13 states that have this statute that prevents us from receiving benefits that we have earned! ACT NOW! Your financial future may depend on it!
v 403B Update: Our MTA attorney has sent administration a letter explaining the illegal action regarding the mandate that we can only invest OUR money with only ONE carrier! The letter requests that the school department desist in this practice. This very same thing happened in East Bridgewater and the court’s decision was in MTA’s favor. Furthermore, the process demands that carriers bid on providing us the service. That was not done in this case. American Funds should NOT be the only funds available to our members to invest. In addition, the statute mandated date is January of 2009 not 2008. We are the ONLY community in Massachusetts being forced to one carrier. We will stay the course and update you as information becomes available.
v The MTA Board of Directors overwhelmingly voted to support casinos in Massachusetts dues to the tax issues in this state. We are not doing a media campaign or using any funds to promote casinos but when asked have taken the position of support. Patrick had a committee research over four months on the impacts casinos would have on this state.
v Resource Study bill needs to get out of Committee and to the floor. Instead of “guessing” where the needs are, the study would pinpoint areas of need such as PD and a readiness project, etc. It would guarantee us 17.5% foundation budget from the state to cities and towns first and the excess will be given to the larger communities. It would increase revenues to Methuen.
v Parochial and private school bill looks likely to pass! Those who have taught in private schools would be eligible to buy back those years and add to their years of teaching. This would bring many people closer to retirement. As soon as information becomes available, I will send out the details.
v Reg Weaver, our NEA president, signed a solidarity partnership agreement with the AFL-CIO. This means that if individual states wish to “join” the AFL-CIO, we can. Representatives approached us at the recent large local presidents meeting with a proposal. Each individual member would pay dues to the AFL-CIO at the local, state, and national level. The premise is that the solidarity would provide labor unions more strength in helping us fight our causes. HOWEVER, the consensus at the large local meeting is that the COST is too high and why don’t they join us and pay MTA and NEA to join? I calculated that it would be over $12,700 per year of our MEA budget to join the Merrimack Valley Central Labor Council @ $1.24 per member. The more members you have the bigger the cost and of course, that would be passed down to the members. That is NOT going to happen!! We can be supportive of one another without paying a heavy price tag.