Ask the PBA

The Legislature has one week left of interim committee meetings (Next week). There will be a one week break and then session officially begins. The last two months have been busy in terms of issues that matter to you.

Let's recap:
The Governor released his budget proposal which included a onetime bonus for all state employees ($1,200.00), along with merit increases for select individuals within an agency. PBA appreciates the gesture, but we made it known that real raises are necessary. The Senate and House Legislative Leaders were much more receptive to our position. That is one issue we are lobbying during the session on your behalf.

FRS pension reform is the other really big issue that we will handle during the session. There is a proposal to close the pension plan to all new hires after January 1, 2014. Everyone hired prior to that date will be able to remain in the pension plan. We are concerned by this proposal, because to could have severe financial consequences to the overall funding for the pension plan. It also could put the new hires in a defined contribution plan that doesn't provide enough for retirement and it could have severe consequences for family members of an officers killed or injured in the line of duty.

We will also be involved in the agency budgeting process and the issues are many.

Session is a marathon. The really weighty issues seldom get resolved until the last days of the session. Your pay and pension are weighty issues so things are not going to completely take shape until the end. I will do everything I can to keep you informed on where things stand. My one note of caution is don't let one bad report from me throw you into a panic. Session requires patience.

I look forward to staying in touch with all of you during the session on this forum.

I am also very serious, if anyone is interested in joining us up here to see how things happen please contact me at matt@flpba.org.

Matt

Can you provide the names of the Legislators on the impasse committee?

In addition, who are the influential Legislators on the committee?

[Matt Puckett]

The Legislature has one week left of interim committee meetings (Next week). There will be a one week break and then session officially begins. The last two months have been busy in terms of issues that matter to you.

Let's recap:
The Governor released his budget proposal which included a onetime bonus for all state employees ($1,200.00), along with merit increases for select individuals within an agency. PBA appreciates the gesture, but we made it known that real raises are necessary. The Senate and House Legislative Leaders were much more receptive to our position. That is one issue we are lobbying during the session on your behalf.

FRS pension reform is the other really big issue that we will handle during the session. There is a proposal to close the pension plan to all new hires after January 1, 2014. Everyone hired prior to that date will be able to remain in the pension plan. We are concerned by this proposal, because to could have severe financial consequences to the overall funding for the pension plan. It also could put the new hires in a defined contribution plan that doesn't provide enough for retirement and it could have severe consequences for family members of an officers killed or injured in the line of duty.

We will also be involved in the agency budgeting process and the issues are many.

Session is a marathon. The really weighty issues seldom get resolved until the last days of the session. Your pay and pension are weighty issues so things are not going to completely take shape until the end. I will do everything I can to keep you informed on where things stand. My one note of caution is don't let one bad report from me throw you into a panic. Session requires patience.

I look forward to staying in touch with all of you during the session on this forum.

I am also very serious, if anyone is interested in joining us up here to see how things happen please contact me at matt@flpba.org.

Matt

Can you provide the names of the Legislators on the impasse committee?

In addition, who are the influential Legislators on the committee?

Here's the committee page link with all the members' contact information.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/View ... oint/jscb/

They are all influential.

[quote=Matt Puckett][quote=Guest][quote="Matt Puckett":1xbonc7c]Okay in the spirit of trying to get some traffic to our PBA News forum, we have posted the latest PBA [i]Capitol Report [/i]on that forum. The report discusses pensions and pay raises. Please click over and watch.[/quote]

Link?[/quote]

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX74NlJ2DqQ&feature=g-user-u"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX74NlJ ... e=g-user-u[/url]

This link can be found on our website and the Leoaffairs forum PBA News ( the most unpopular forum on Leoaffairs )

We discuss making changes to the investment plan during the video. PBA also testified during Thursday's House Committee meeting that the investment plan should be fixed to address the lower rates.[/quote:1xbonc7c]
Thanks

So now I have a great question to ask. Now that the state has won the 3%,, what about the people in the investment plan who are now only getting 12% instead of the 20%??? Its like a double hit, I want something to be done about this..! Is there anything in the works on this? What is the PBA proposing about this? With the 3% cut final, and the loss of the 8% in investments and now my taxes went up also,,, I am loosing out on a lot. I think it may be time I put in an application with Tampa Police Department. I am tired of all of this BS. Why does Georgia and Alabama State Troopers get paid more (a lot more) than FHP? Has anyone ever though of that??? This agency-- with its new heads, its terrible pay, is CRAP and I want out. I have invested a lot of years just to be crapped on the whole time, with beautiful dreams about the future that NEVER materialize.

Yeah us in the investment plan are getting screwed by **** Scott big time!

I thought it was still 20% minus the 3% we contribute. I did not know the matching was only 12% now. How did this happen and no big deal was made of it. I think this was also a contract issue since the reason many have switched to the investment plan was because of the 20%. So what do we need to do about this?

Agree

So now I have a great question to ask. Now that the state has won the 3%,, what about the people in the investment plan who are now only getting 12% instead of the 20%??? Its like a double hit, I want something to be done about this..! Is there anything in the works on this? What is the PBA proposing about this? With the 3% cut final, and the loss of the 8% in investments and now my taxes went up also,,, I am loosing out on a lot. I think it may be time I put in an application with Tampa Police Department. I am tired of all of this BS. Why does Georgia and Alabama State Troopers get paid more (a lot more) than FHP? Has anyone ever though of that??? This agency-- with its new heads, its terrible pay, is CRAP and I want out. I have invested a lot of years just to be crapped on the whole time, with beautiful dreams about the future that NEVER materialize.

Yeah us in the investment plan are getting screwed by **** Scott big time!

I thought it was still 20% minus the 3% we contribute. I did not know the matching was only 12% now. How did this happen and no big deal was made of it. I think this was also a contract issue since the reason many have switched to the investment plan was because of the 20%. So what do we need to do about this?

Agree

This needs to be addressed; the state wants to force the investment option on us, yet also makes it less appealing at the same time.

So now I have a great question to ask. Now that the state has won the 3%,, what about the people in the investment plan who are now only getting 12% instead of the 20%??? Its like a double hit, I want something to be done about this..! Is there anything in the works on this? What is the PBA proposing about this? With the 3% cut final, and the loss of the 8% in investments and now my taxes went up also,,, I am loosing out on a lot. I think it may be time I put in an application with Tampa Police Department. I am tired of all of this BS. Why does Georgia and Alabama State Troopers get paid more (a lot more) than FHP? Has anyone ever though of that??? This agency-- with its new heads, its terrible pay, is CRAP and I want out. I have invested a lot of years just to be crapped on the whole time, with beautiful dreams about the future that NEVER materialize.

Yeah us in the investment plan are getting screwed by **** Scott big time!

I thought it was still 20% minus the 3% we contribute. I did not know the matching was only 12% now. How did this happen and no big deal was made of it. I think this was also a contract issue since the reason many have switched to the investment plan was because of the 20%. So what do we need to do about this?

Agree

This needs to be addressed; the state wants to force the investment option on us, yet also makes it less appealing at the same time.

Exactly.....idiots!

[Matt Puckett]

Hello everyone,

First, my prayers are with the family of Sgt Morales and the St. Lucie SO.

Tomorrow is the official first day of the 2013 Legislative Session. PBA puts out a weekly report and I will post it here. The two big issues are pay and pensions. We have 60 days to get it done.

Please check in and if you have a question please post, I will check everyday to provide answers.

Please be safe out there.

Matt

Hello everyone,

First, my prayers are with the family of Sgt Morales and the St. Lucie SO.

Tomorrow is the official first day of the 2013 Legislative Session. PBA puts out a weekly report and I will post it here. The two big issues are pay and pensions. We have 60 days to get it done.

Please check in and if you have a question please post, I will check everyday to provide answers.

Please be safe out there.

Matt

Matt,

What the heck is going on ? Weatherford is out there saying there won't be hardly any money for state employee raises because he is going to be giving 500 million dollars this session to FRS so he can shut it off to new hires in 2014. Besides his goals why is FRS just being being made solvent in the future for current officers in his plan on the back of state officers and not the locals as they have more people in the FRS plan than the state I think. So we are supposed to be screwed once again so the locals have money to keep paying their employees way more than the state does ? Do they realize how little state officers are making compared to their county officer counterparts ?

Also why are they trying to take the other money and fund teachers when its the local property tax money that primarily drives their wages and many are already set for raises already this year from the counties and make more than state officers even though they make less then their county officers. What a joke. Have these legislators been shown a chart to show how pathetic our pay is compared to the locals ? Unbelievable they are even out there saying their priority is for the state to pay 500 million in FRS not the counties and to give extra money to teachers that already are better compensated than us and act like there isn't much money for state officer raises.

Matt,

Seriously, Have you guys ever got blunt with these legislators and showed them we have counties in Florida where seasoned dispatchers (yes dispatchers) are making 50k a year but the state employed seasoned trooper in that same county is making 35k while the seasoned county officers are making 60k+. I can't believe this has been done with how they talk about using the budget dollars.

[Matt Puckett]

To the previous posts.

I can read your frustrations, but here are a couple of things to consider.

First, the teacher pay proposal was made by the Governor not the Legislature. It remains to be seen if that will make it into the legislative budget, but from what I have noticed that proposal has not received a warm welcome.

The legislature is going to debate the costs associated with FRS during this session. Whether we like it or not, pension costs are a salient topic.

They are also discussing the state's portion of the FRS unfunded actuarial liability (UAL) which they should do. That cost is roughly $500 million. The larger that UAL grows the more strains are placed on pension payments down the road. It remains to be seen if they will require local employers to pay more towards the UAL.

Pay raises are a completely separate topic. One that both chambers are also going to work on.

Remember what I have said before - this process requires patience. It ebbs and flows. We have 59 days left.