'Retirement Security'
Retirement Security Update for Alaska Public Employees
On the last day of the 25th Alaska Legislature Senator Kim Elton and cosponsor Senator Lesil McGuire introduced SB183, an act which would repeal the “401K savings plan” imposed on new teachers and public employees hired after June 30 2006. SB183 would restore a safe, secure Defined Benefit plan which would allow our […]
New Findings Regarding Public Employees Retirement Policies
The following is a copy of a memorandum sent by Senator Kim Elton to the Finance Committee summarizing recent findings by Buck Consultants, retirement system analysts who work for the State. In this document, “DB” is short for “defined benefit,” the classic retirement plan which includes a pension, and is like the type of […]
Center for Policy Alternatives
The Center for Policy Alternatives accurately describes itself as:
…the nation’s only nonpartisan nonprofit organization working to strengthen the capacity of state legislators to lead and achieve progressive change.
The CPA website has a number of extremely useful elements on it. For example, the State Action Blog contains a running commentary about recent progressive legislation enacted […]
Medicare in Alaska and Drug Prices
Thank you Wikipedia for these fun facts about Medicare:
Medicare is a health insurance program administered by the United States government, covering people who are either age 65 and over, or who meet other special criteria. It was originally signed into law on July 30, 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson as amendments to Social Security […]
Current Status of SB 141 fiasco
Gayle Harbo Retired after teaching mathematics in Fairbanks for 25 years. She was very good at what she did. In 1989 she was named Alaska Teacher of the Year. She is still very good at what she does, but now she is Secretary of the Alaska Retirement Management Board (ARMB). As […]
Alaska Take Note: Pensions Not Dead Across the Nation!
I have written extensively about the recent destruction of the pension systems for public employees in Alaska (traditional “defined benefit” plans), and their replacement with “defined contribution” plans similar to 401k plans, which are little more than savings accounts. Some time ago a legislator mentioned to me that he thought this was the worst […]
Privatization of Social Security: Not Dead Yet
Here is an important summary of recent events relating to the resurrection of truly terrible public policy, the privatization of Social Security. This summary is courtesy of the August 4 issue of Friday Alert, the weekly electronic newsletter of The Alliance of Retired Americans.
Recent Events: SB 141 and PERS/TRS
This message that follows was recently released by the Alaska Public Employees Association. The Association has played a leading role in the struggle to preserve retirement security in Alaska, and to preserve the ability of the public sector in this state to remain competetive to recruit teachers, police, firefighters, and other key positions. […]