On Thursday, August 25th, I met with the NYPD 10-13 Retiree Group at their Floral Park building. Their President, Gene Loewy is someone with many connections and vast knowledge. Tom Ryan and Jay Finn are new Board Members and we discussed shared legislation and the importance of building consensus. The need to be politically involved was hammered home as more important these days than ever before. They currently have 4 NYPD officers running for various offices, including a Lt Governor candidate on the ticket with Zeldin. We discussed the need to meet with other groups, such as the NY Police and Fire Retiree Association of mostly Westchester retirees, whose President is Lou Bousche. I am a member of this group. As the summer winds down, we will be setting up more meetings with groups associated with the UFA, UFOA, PBA, PBA Detectives and PBA Officer groups. The idea is to build consensus on how best to get the COLA Bills written into law. Unfortunately, reality sometimes gets in the way and timing is everything. Right now, the financial markets are working against us and the COLA Bills. Our current emphasis will be best used against the for profit Medicare Advantage fiasco. We will keep you updated!
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As it stands today, there are three Pension Bills that concern the COLA in Albany. All of them are currently before the Senate Civil Service and Pensions Committee and have fiscal notes. They were all introduced by Senator Gounardes. NY S05631 which looks to increase the COLA from 50% to 100% (Starting date was changed to Sept 1st, 2023) NY S06835 which seeks to increase the Base from $18,000 to $21,000 (Starting date Sept 1st, 2023) Assembly Bill A8226 is a companion bill introduced by Peter Abbate. These Bills were also championed by the NYPD Retired Sergeants Association, who started a call in campaign. NY S06651 which lowers the age to start receiving your COLA increase from 62 to 55 for certain situations. With the clock ticking against us and so many bills to choose from, it was our opinion that since they moved the starting dates of the COLA Bills to next year, our resources are best used when there is a coordinated effort that would be helpful! Note that there was a more of an effort to preserve our Retiree Medical Benefits (S5184 and A5108) at the end of this year's session, which sometimes takes away from our other priorities. This will be a long term goal, where we won't give you false hope.
We understand the necessity of coordinating with others and will be persistent to make it a reality in the future.
(Bill Romaka)
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