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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | August 24, 2023 03:58 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator John I. Kane and Sen. Katie J. Muth |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | COLA for Pre-Act 9 Retirees and all PSERS and SERS Retirees |
| In the near future, we will introduce several bills that would provide a much-needed and long-overdue cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Pennsylvania’s retired school employees and our retired state workers. This approach will give the legislature several options to finally deliver a COLA to retired teachers, school employees, and government workers across our Commonwealth who worked their entire lives and contributed so much to our communities. This bill would provide an automatic cost-of-living adjustment for all retirees of PSERS and SERS who have at least 10 years of credited service and have been receiving annuity payments for at least five years. All eligible retirees would receive a COLA beginning July 1, 2024 and every subsequent three years. The COLA will be determined by using the average percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumer (CPI-U) for the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland area. The COLA may never exceed 7% or be less than a 1% increase. Our bill would also provide one-time supplemental annuities, or COLAs, to approximately 69,000 retirees in PSERS and SERS who retired prior to July 2, 2001. These retirees, often referred to as Pre-Act 9 retirees, have not received an increase in their pension payments in more than 20 years. Under this bill, the supplemental annuity would range from an increase of 4.5% to 15% depending on the date of retirement. Our bill also clearly indicates in Title 24 (Education) that the annuity increases prescribed by this law must be paid for by Commonwealth funds and not by school districts. Everyone deserves to live and to retire with dignity and financial security and it is time that our legislature stands up for our retirees. Please join us in cosponsoring this important legislation |
Introduced as SB1029