From: Pmarkunas@aol.com
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003
Subject: budget amendments/early retirement

Dear MSCA Members:

The House has begun its debate on the budget proposed by the Ways & Means Committee. Your lobbying efforts are needed in three crucial areas:

1) support for the restoration of revenues.
45 tax cuts over the past ten years has caused a decrease of $4,000,000,000 in state revenues. These monies must be restored now to maintain vital state services and support for education, especially higher education.

2) support for budget amendment #383
This amendment maintains the 15% level for state employee contributions to group health insurance benefits. Without this amendment, all MSCA members will pay at least 33% to 67% more in health insurance premiums monthly. This equals hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars out of pocket annually.

3) support for budget amendment #909
This amendment takes $30,000,000 from the BHE central account and redistributes the monies to the individual campus line items. For the state colleges, this would amount to an additional $761,000 for each campus. Important for all colleges, this amendment is especially beneficial to MMA, MCA and MCLA, as this amount represents a larger share of the state appropriation for each of these three campuses.

(Another amendment, #494, would restore the monies on a percentage basis rather than a flat amount. As your president, I recommend the amendment #909 over this one.)

In addition, budget amendment #858 establishes an early retirement incentive for state employees, including those in higher education. The incentive program is almost identical to the ERIP established last year (five years of service and/or age; notice of retirement to be given between 1/1/04 and 2/15/04; date of retirement for higher education employees of 6/15/04 unless the college president establishes an earlier date for certain job classifications; cap of 6700 employees, with seniority as the determinant). However, there is one notable difference; there can be no backfill of positions, on a permanent or temporary basis, for those employees who take the ERIP.

We hope to have links to this last amendment on the MSCA website, so that members can read it for themselves. I do not know anything more about this amendment than what is given here, so please do not send me any questions about it.

Please contact your local representative ASAP and urge their support for these items. Thank you for your help.

Pat Markunas
MSCA President