State politicians and the governor are trying to dip into the state pension fund to spend the money on other state projects. These politicians are trying to cut the pension promised to your firefighters, law enforcement, and teachers. These people are your dedicated professionals that are not high paid salaries. In most cases, these workers have agreed to pay freezes for the past few years to help your local government survive their budget crisis. Even then, we still have had to operate understaffed and short handed in attempt to still try to deliver the same level of service to the public.

This attack on the pension would result in a detrimental pay cut to these workers that have already stepped up to the plate in multiple ways to help their local communities. Enough is enough!

The current pension plan is NOT a drain on the state. As a matter of fact, the Florida State Pension fund is the 9th HEALTHIEST in the nation! 

The politicians want to dip into the funds to fund their own projects instead of taking care of the workers that have been so dedicated to their communities for years.

Without your help in stopping these bills, you will lose many dedicated, experienced, firefighters, law enforcement, and teachers to higher paying career changes. Can you afford to have in-experienced workers replace these people at this time of being under staffed and even more demanding job roles?

 Representative Ritch Workman from Brevard has introduced House Bill 1405 to the Florida Legislature.   While initially it appeared to mirror the Governors recommendation (see below), there are several significant differences.  As we read HB 1405, we believe it proposes the following important aspects:

• It does not do away with the Pension Plan for new hires after July 1.  It seems the Pension Plan will still be an option, and the Investment Plan will not be mandatory.
• The service credit for Special Risk members appears to remain at 3%.  All other membership classes are reduced to 1.6% after July 1, 2011.  Service credit for prior years is maintained, but future service will be credited at the new rates.
• We can find no language that eliminates the use of overtime or unused leave time in the calculation of Average Final Compensation.

As with the Governor’s proposal:

• The Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) goes away after July 1, 2011 for those not already participating at that date.   If you are participating in the DROP prior to that date, you can stay in it for your full 60 month term.
• COLA is prorated as in the Governors plan.  You will get credit for Cola based on a calculation of years of service prior to July 1, 2011 as a percentage of total years of service, multiplied by 3%.
• Employee contributions are 5% of gross compensation for all employees across the board.

We need your help to tell the Governor and politicians to LEAVE PUBLIC SAFETY AND OUR TEACHERS ALONE! Please take a minute to send the form below. It will automatically go to your representatives for Lake, Marion, and Orange County when you send it.