Inflation sucking the life out of your pension?
Former state Comptroller Arthur Levitt Sr., who served from 1955-1979, said inflation is the greatest threat to the financial security of state retirees.

PEF Retirees has continually advocated for a full COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) to our pensions to offset inflation. But we’ve been advised it’s unrealistic in the current political climate to ask for even this change in our current COLA level of 50 percent of inflation.

It’s even been suggested that a campaign for a full COLA would be portrayed as greedy by our detractors who would not hesitate to call us “pigs at the public trough.”

The maximum benefit PEF retirees can receive from their 2007-2008 COLA is $21 per month, that’s based on half of the CPI (Consumer Price Index). If we received a full COLA, that maximum would double to $42 monthly. No senior could ever consider buying a villa in France with that largess.

Any characterization of state retirees as greedy pigs is truly outrageous.

Contrast our modest, hard-earned pensions with the lavish retirements of the leaders of corporate America who often receive tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars, whether the CEO was successful or not.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), reports the average corporate chief executive officer earns more on the first day of the year than the average worker earns all year.

Average CEO pay was 411 times greater than average worker pay in 2007 – a gap nearly 10 times wider than it was in 1980, when CEO pay averaged 42 times more than average worker pay.

Statistics indicate 30 percent of our nation’s elderly were living in poverty in the 1930’s, which triggered the demand for Social Security and pensions.

The trend has turned.

In 1983, more than two-thirds of households headed by people ages 47 to 64 had someone earning a pension. But by 2001, fewer than half did.”

Worker pay is eroding and pensions are disappearing. The retirees who have pensions need a full COLA just to offset the unrelenting ravages of inflation.

After decades of dedicated service to New York state, we should not have to face our senior years experiencing insecurity and ever mounting financial stress.

In 2006, state Assembly Member Peter J. Abbate Jr. introduced Bill A08376 that would increase our COLA from 50 percent to 100 percent of the CPI.

The PEF Retirees strongly supports this bill. What’s lacking, however, is a matching “companion” bill in the state Senate.

That’s where you can make a big difference. First, write your state senator and ask her or him to submit/support a companion bill for A08376. Explain how your pension’s value is being undercut more deeply by inflation every year.

Then, write your Assembly member to request support to get A08376 out of committee and passed.
It took many years of steady pressure to achieve the COLA we have. It will take no less determination and effort to finally get it to where it always should have been: equal to 100 percent of inflation. We need it and we’ve earned it.

smuscarella@pef.org

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