TRS Board Discusses Future Shortfalls as Critical Primary Election Looms

[LeftInTX]

(A few weeks old, but very relevant. Teachers do not have SS withheld. My husband wants to retire next year. They really hate us!!)

I was listening to a retired educator testify before the TRS board at their annual board retreat this morning. She expressed that retirees are scared about increasing healthcare premiums and upcoming changes that will greatly impact the actuarial picture of the pension fund. She also asked for TRS to advocate on behalf of retirees in dealing with the legislature. It was moving testimony. However, I wish she and all educators, active and retired, would shift their mentality from scared to angry and look not to TRS to take care of them next session, but instead look to themselves to be their own best advocates, at the polls where these decisions are really made.

The reality is TRS is an administrative agency, and while the TRS staff does a phenomenal job, their job is to implement the legislature’s will, NOT to lobby the legislature on behalf of TRS members. In fact, all state agency staff, TRS staff included, are prohibited by state law from engaging in lobbying efforts.

TRS has hard days ahead. If the defined benefit pension system or TRS-provided retiree healthcare are going to continue to exist, active teachers and retired teachers alike will have to use their voices not only at the capitol but also at the polls.

First, TRS is set to drop its assumed rate of return from 8 percent to 7.25 percent. This one action, at least on paper, will make the fund go from healthy to anything but. There is already extreme pressure from Wall Street money managers and the politicians willing to work on their behalf to convert TRS to a 401(k) style system off of which they could make huge profits. Without other changes offsetting the drop to 7.25, this pressure will likely increase exponentially as the pension fund will look considerably more vulnerable going forward.

https://www.teachthevote.org/news/2018/02/15/trs-board-discusses-future-shortfalls-as-critical-primary-election-looms/

This is why I support Andrew White for governor. This is life and death for us.

[TexasTowelie]

1. TRS has always been underfunded to the ERS.

Having the dual systems of ERS and TRS also ends up pitting state workers against teachers when comes to funding for pay raise and the retirement systems. Both groups would have more power if their resources were combined.

It used to be that working for the state as either an employee or a teacher may not be the highest paying job, but that the retirement benefits offset the low pay. If that argument no longer holds true, then it removes one the incentives to be a public servant or teacher.