Reward hard work

Our society believes in rewarding hard work. However, hard workers in Maine who retire under the Maine State Retirement System (MSRS) will not receive the retirement benefits they have earned. These Mainers are not high income professionals, but are low to middle-income workers such as teachers, workers in the Department of Transportation, police and other public employees who will have the retirements they have worked for, contributed to, and are entitled to

unfairly reduced, even eliminated.

If an insurance company sold a policy and then denied the benefits outlined in their policy, there would be cries of outrage. Yet, Social Security laws are doing just that, taking away prescribed benefits, time and time again, to Maine teachers and public employees. And – a shocking number of those affected do not even realize that they will be penalized until after they register for retirement.

Maine’s public employees deserve to receive the retirement benefits they have paid for, worked for and planned on. Maine’s people, who also pay high taxes, deserve good public services; and their children deserve a good education. However, with this state’s poor retirement, it is becoming more difficult to recruit good employees and teachers to our state. For example, a teacher’s average retirement today is $20,000 a year. After taxes and cost of medical insurance (Maine teachers who have been working since before 1983 have no Medicare benefits), their monthly retirement income qualifies them for food stamps. Maine must work with federal lawmakers to better its state workers’ and teachers’ salaries and retirement benefits.

Here’s how federal laws affect workers in Maine, one of only 15 states affected in the nation. The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) prevents teachers and public workers from ever receiving full Social Security benefits. These workers may have paid payroll deductions into Social Security (SS) at a time when they were teaching in non-affected states, working summer jobs, from part-time work, self-employment, or other careers such as the military. But, WEP will reduce their earned retirement benefits from SS by one half or more.

Another federal law which impacts these workers’ Social Security is the Government Pension Offset (GPO). The GPO reduces Social Security retirement benefits for surviving spouses. In Maine, nine out of ten public employees and teachers affected by GPO lose their entire survivor benefit, even though their deceased spouse paid Social Security taxes for many years. These survivor benefits have been paid for spousal contributions, usually over a lifetime.

There is legislation in the House of Representatives, HR 2638, recently introduced by Rep. Howard McKeon of California, another of the 15 affected states, and co-sponsored by Maine Reps. Tom Allen and John Baldacci, that would completely eliminate the WEP and GPO Social Security Offset laws.

On Oct. 10, S 1523, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2001, was introduced to the Senate. The wording is the same as the bill in the House, with the key words: Repeal, GPO, and WEP. This companion legislation will make the possibility of repeal more likely.

Please join Maine teachers, public employees, and retirees in urging both the passage of HR 2638 by the House and of S 1523 in the Senate. Write or call Reps. Baldacci and Allen to encourage their support for repeal and to thank them for their sponsorship. Call or write Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to ask that they also support repeal legislation in the Senate.

Maine needs to be on par with the rest of the states. Maine does not want to lose its present level of education and services. Help attract professional and qualified people to teach and serve Mainers by insuring adequate retirement to all who are members of the state of Maine retirement system.

Joyce Blakney is the president of the Bangor Education Association.