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Gov. vetoes retirees’ health care bill

This year, again, the governor has vetoed the retiree health care protection bill passed by the Senate and Assembly. The veto message was virtually the same as last year’s.

As before, PEF Retirees joined with Retired Public Employees Association, Retired Teacher’s Association,

Organization of Management-Confidential Employees Retirees and several retired police and fire fighter organizations to lobby for this bill.

In past years, we have been able to get legislators to commit to pass the bill, but they would not commit to override a veto if necessary. This year, we seemed to have that commitment for an override, but the legislative session recessed before an override motion could be made.

The Legislature may return briefly for a special session before December 31 and might take up an override then. If that happens and if we have sufficient time, we will try to coordinate a contact-your-legislator campaign. However, we encourage you to monitor the PEF Retirees Web page on PEF’s Web site, as that will be the first place we will post the information.

Regardless of how this ultimately plays out this year, we want to thank Sen. Hugh Farley and Assembly Member Peter Abbate for introducing this bill and successfully shepherding it through their respective houses. We also want to express appreciation to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for their support of this bill.

Most importantly, we want to thank those of you who took the time and effort to visit your legislators and to send faxes, e-mails or letters, or call the Legislature and the governor to urge support for this legislation.

Even if we are not successful this year, stay tuned; we will be back again next year.

We have received a few calls lately from PEF Retiree members who are not receiving The Communicator. At the moment, we don’t know why that is happening.

If you know of someone who is up-to-date with their dues, but isn’t receiving The Communicator, tell them to call the PEF Retirees Office at 800-342-4306, ext. 289.

 

The Communicator July/Aug. '06

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You Said It - Member's Mailbag
Legislative Action
Member Mobilizer: Parole
Stronger Contract: NDRI pact
Health Notes
Retirees in Action
Member Highlights
Membership Benefits & Travel

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