March 24 a date to make the calls.

http://www.flpba.org/pdf/PBA_D-Day_Flier.pdf

March 24 is what everyone needs to have their minds on. Make the calls, our throats are bleeding and we may bleed out with the cuts continuing.


http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpol ... udget.html (http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2010/03/lawmakers-keeping-free-health-premiums-in-house-budget.html)

If these pass I wonder if there will be a mass retirement?

The small things are the least of our worries this year!

State workers stand to lose in budget talks


By LLOYD DUNKELBERGER
H-T Capital Bureau

Published: Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.

From their paychecks to their pensions to their very jobs, state workers have a lot to lose as the Legislature tries to resolve a $3 billion budget shortfall.

Myriad cost-cutting proposals aimed at state workers are being weighed by lawmakers. Cutting pay by 3 percent. Paying more for health insurance. Limiting retirement benefits. And for some workers the most ominous threat: losing their jobs. Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, who represents Leon County, which alone has more than 20,000 state workers, said he fears lawmakers are looking to balance the new state budget "on the backs of state workers."

"Workers out there are very nervous," Lawson said. "They work hard for the state. And it appears that when revenue is short, they want to dump it on them."

Significant savings can be realized, in part, from the sheer size of the state work force. Including university employees, the state has about 169,000 positions in its annual $66 billion budget. Most of the changes are aimed at about 127,000 workers who range from state agency heads to correctional officers to health care workers to court employees to child abuse investigators.

Yet while lawmakers look to wring savings from the work force, Florida already has a lean state payroll compared with other states. In 2008, the average state government had 216 workers per 10,000 population. Florida had 118 -- ranking it next to last in the nation, according to the annual survey by the state Department of Management Services. The average national payroll expenditures for state workers were $69 per resident, but only $38 in Florida.

But Florida is generous to state workers -- in some areas. More than 26,000 state employees -- including legislators and Gov. Charlie Crist -- get free health insurance. Some of those workers received free insurance in exchange for giving up job-protection rights under a management overhaul led by former Gov. Jeb Bush.

Employees who pay for their health coverage get bargain rates -- $50 a month for individuals or $180 for families. State workers do not contribute to their pensions -- with the state picking up the entire cost. Some workers in "special risk" or "senior management" categories accrue their pension benefits at higher rate than average workers. And their pension benefits are not capped -- meaning some, if they work long enough, can retire with their full paycheck.

Those benefits come as the cost to the state -- and ultimately taxpayers -- continues to rise for health care and pension payments.

Against that backdrop, legislative leaders say state workers, like all other state government entities, will have to bear some of the budget-cutting burden this year.

"Everything is on the table," said Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, who is in line to become the next House speaker.

Senate budget chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said while many of those proposals are under consideration, some of the impact may be mitigated if Florida receives an additional $1 billion in federal aid for Medicaid next year -- an event most state officials expect to happen.

But Alexander has also voiced support for some of the cost-cutting measures, including having all state employees pay for their health insurance.

"What's good for the goose is good for the gander," he said. Lawson said it was unfair to look at making workers pay more for their health care and pensions given that they haven't had a raise in some four years. He also said the workers who gave up their job protections in exchange for free insurance should be considered.

"You're reneging on a promise," Lawson said. "They need to honor that."

As the House and Senate head for an April 1 floor vote on their budget bills, the most immediate threat to emerge for state workers is the House plan for a 3 percent pay cut for all workers, including Gov. Charlie Crist, who would lose nearly $4,000 in annual pay. State workers are in their fourth year without a pay increase.

The average pay for the bulk of state workers in 2008 was $38,517 -- down by $322 from a year earlier, according to the DMS survey.

Last year, lawmakers tried to cut 2 percent from the paychecks of state workers earning more than $45,000 a year. But Crist vetoed the measure. Layoffs could be possible for some employees.

The initial House budget bill gives agency heads the flexibility of offsetting the 3 percent pay cut by making other managerial moves, including laying off some workers. The Senate has considered eliminating more than 1,800 correctional officer positions -- which appear to be vacant.

But union officials, who represent the officers, say inevitably the elimination of "vacancies" often involves actual employees. The House has considered eliminating some 450 positions in community corrections operations. Lawmakers are looking at eliminating positions and curbing health and pension benefits because of the savings.

For instance, requiring all state workers to pay for their health insurance would save $46 million in the new budget, according to an analysis by Florida TaxWatch, a nonprofit government watchdog group. TaxWatch also said requiring new state employees to contribute 5 percent of their pay -- a rate common in other states -- to fund their pensions could save the state $245 million a year.

Reducing the accrual of pension benefits for some workers could save more than $200 million when fully implemented in the next few years. Others argue that the pension and health care benefits help offset the generally lower pay that most state workers receive, such as correctional officers who qualify for the higher pension accrual rate but start their jobs at about $28,000 a year.

George Sheldon, secretary of the Department of Children and Families, one of the state's largest agencies, said he hopes to avoid layoffs in this year's budget debate. He cited several examples where his employees have excelled.

He said some 4,000 workers were involved in turning around Florida's food stamp error rate from one of the worst in the country to one of the best, earning the state an additional $13.5 million.

Sheldon is urging lawmakers to give those workers a special one-time $500 bonus -- a move that Governor Crist supports. After the recent earthquake in Haiti, Sheldon's agency set up two special centers in the Orlando area and Miami to handle more than 20,000 American citizens living in Haiti who wanted to be repatriated.

"We had over 1,200 of our employees volunteering to do 12-hour shifts," Sheldon said. "Some of them did the 12-hour shifts and then went in and did their regular jobs."

Sheldon said the workers find motivation in their jobs beyond the pay and benefits. "Folks that take these jobs do it because they love it," he said. "There is a certain satisfaction that they get out of it."

H-T Capital Bureau correspondent Gary Fineout contributed to this report.

We have been pulling in $10-15 million a year for numerous years through the DOR program. Where is our $500 one time bonus? I will give it up if I can just keep my benefits as they are now. At least some department heads try to take care or their people.

We have been pulling in $10-15 million a year for numerous years through the DOR program. Where is our $500 one time bonus? I will give it up if I can just keep my benefits as they are now. At least some department heads try to take care or their people.

Exactly! Our people have to stop worrying about the small things right now and really look at just how screwed we are. I believe it was 1993 when the DOR program started and has brought this state more than its cost to have our agency in that period at the same time continuing our core mission.

Pick up the phone and make those calls. Act now for what you work for. A LIVING!

Don't let anyone in Tally fool you, OALE is going to be just fine in the budget this year. Stimulus money is gonna make up for shortfalls all around. There are other reasons that you will not be cut because Putnam wants your vote in November. PBA better start kissing his butt soon. The only ones looking for a job will be Tallahassee command.

Everyone is doing a great job with the call for service! Keep it going with everything crossed.

Well we have begun to have the impact we intended to have with the House and Senate leadership...they are shutting down their phones and e-mails at the Capitol...we need everyone to shift their calls to these legislators home District office's!!!! Everyone is doing a great job...but we need to keep up the pressure...so continue to make those calls throughout the day.



Senator JD Alexander (863) 386-6016

Senate President Jeff Atwater (954) 847-3518

Senator Mike Haridopolos (321) 752-3131

Speaker of the House Larry Cretul (352) 873-6564

Representative David Rivera (305) 227-7630

Try shifting back to the Capitol lines this afternoon...also said to send this information to any email trees you may have...

March 23, 2010
Death watch on for pensions bills that thwart powerful police and fire lobbies

This is the week we start the death watch for high profile, controversial and even good government bills that are running out of time. Top on our list today is a series of bills aimed at reining in the lucrative pension benefits of many police, fire and special risk employees. The bills, proposed by Rep. Juan Zapata, R-Miami, Rep. Tom Grady, R-Naples and Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, also revise the retirement plans for future state and local government employees.

Bennett’s bill is the only one to get a hearing but it was also watered down and amended when it came up today before the Senate Community Affairs Committee, which he chairs. Then, as dozens of firefighters and police sat in the crowded meeting room, it was postponed – some speculating that it’s because he didn’t have the votes.

Over in the House, Grady’s bill, which he had planned to amend to match Bennett’s amendment, didn’t get included on the list of bills scheduled to be on the agenda before Rep. Rob Schenck’s Governmental Affairs Policy Committee when it meets Wednesday and Thursday.



Bennett would require that future hires be given retirement plans that give benefits equal to the base salary for the last five years of employment but no longer include what they've earned in overtime, unused leave and other additions governments have agreed to add in the last several years. New hires would also be offered only defined contribution plans, not defined benefit plans, and cities and counties would have to report annually their pension fund liabilities and contributions.

Bennett was blunt about the turmoil these measures are facing.

“Anybody who wants to run for reelection never wants to go against the firefighters or the PBA,’’ he said. “Sometimes things that are politically correct are certainly not politically popular. But if you go back home if they get a pension plan that will fund them for the rest of their lives after only 30 years and at age 45. I think they would say no. Does their pension plan cover all their overtime? They would say no.’’


But, he admits, that while the rich benefits offered to many special risk employees are not popular, neither is thwarting them. “I’m hoping someday to run for Congress and it’s not going to be popular for me. But would they rather do that or bankrupt the cities and the state? We have to bring it more in line with what the private sector pays.’’

David Murrell of the Police Benevolent Association confirms this assessment.

“We’re keeping a list of who's naughty and nice,’’ he said of the session. “I call it my Santa Claus list.”

Meanwhile, Bennett said his bill will be back before the committee next week and he hopes his fellow legislators see things his way: “While it’s not popular, it’s something we have to do.”

While pension reform is hurting, effort to fund the pension plan are still alive. On Tuesday, the Houses' full budget committee approved raising state employer's share of the retirement plan $294 million and the county share $166 million to bridge the gap. They are also asking for another actuarial study for the fiscal year July 1, 2009 to July 1 2010, to determine if there is any remaining budget gap.

Threats to Our Pensions Update

Due to your help, the legislative leaders were bombarded with calls and e-mails to the point where many of their systems were shut down. We’ve learned that two House bills, HB 1319 by Representative Grady and HB 1543 by Representative Juan Zapata, were pulled. Because of the pressure and uncertainty of the vote, Senator Bennett who sponsored SB 1902, also pulled his own bill from the committee he chairs. While all of the aforementioned is great news, we must not let our guard down.

Senator JD Alexander, of Lake Wales, has another bill, SB 2022, which is still very much alive and will be coming up today in committee. His phone number is (850) 487-5044 and his e-mail is alexander.jd.web@flsenate.gov . Feel free to contact him again.

Thanks for your involvement. We have broken their stride! However, you must know that they can still sneak bills in anywhere during the process, and even during the very last days without further hearings. We are watching very closely. Again, thank you for your help. It makes all the difference in the world.

A thank you and kudos also goes out to the other unions who joined in with our efforts to stop this madness. The PBA continues to be at the forefront of this effort and will be vigilant throughout the entire Session.

Please call us with any questions. We will try to answer as expeditiously as possible.

Stay informed. Thank you for what you do on a daily basis.

John Rivera, President
Florida PBA

Senate budget committee approves pension bill
By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital Bureau

Public employees would start making a small contribution to the Florida Retirement System next year, under a bill approved Thursday by the Senate budget committee.

The vote came over strong objection by employee representatives.

The employee contribution would be one-fourth of 1 percent of gross earnings - about $75 a year for a worker making $30,000 - but Senate Ways and Means Chairman JD Alexander said the state can't continue an entirely employer-paid pension plan. He said very few states don't require employees to chip in something to the pension pot, with contributions ranging from 2.5 to 10 percent.

"I wish there were some other way, I truly do," said Alexander, R-Lake Wales. "I take absolutely no pleasure in this. I have a great respect and admiration for our public employees, particularly those in public safety who stand to protect us."

Lobbyists from the Florida Police Benevolent Association, Professional Firefighters of Florida, Florida Education Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees united in opposition to the bill (SB 2022).

Apart from pensions, the powerful budget chairman has repeatedly said this year that he wants to make all state employees pay for health insurance. About 27,000 Selected Exempt, Senior Management, legislative and other employees now have employer-paid insurance.

There are also some pending budget proposals for pay cuts in the budget, which will likely require layoffs in the fiscal year starting July 1. Separate House and Senate work on the budget will be completed in the next few weeks.

"We really don't think a quarter-percent from employees is going to help the Florida Retirement System; it's got a lot more problems than that," said Don Teems, a lobbyist for the PBA. "But I do think it's the camel's nose under the tent. I do believe that you'll come back year after year after year and impose increases on the employees. I think that's the intent."

Alexander estimated the employee 0.25 percent would add up to about $41 million initially, if implemented Jan. 1 for half of the fiscal year, and $83 million over a full year. The $400 million-plus funding gap he cited is borne largely by city, county and special districts that make up about 80 percent of the FRS membership, but state government, universities and community colleges bear about half.

The budget committee voted 14-8 for the pension contribution. Only one Republican, retired educator Evelynn Lynn of Ormond Beach, voted against Alexander's bill.

Senate Minority Leader Al Lawson, who has represented Tallahassee for 28 years in the House and Senate, said the money may be small but that this is the wrong time to tap employee paychecks.

"We're going on five years without a pay raise for state employees," said Lawson. "This amounts to a reduction in pay for their families."