President’s Message
Working for you! Join us.
We currently have Senate Bill No. 342, “An Act Concerning the Retired Teachers Health Insurance Premium Account,” in the Appropriations Committee. Passage of this bill will be a positive step toward revising a pattern of underfunding our Health Insurance Fund (HIPA).
Senate Bill No. 28, reducing the State income tax on retired teachers’ pensions by one half over two years, has successfully been passed out of the Finance Committee. We will continue to watch as it continues its passage through the Legislature and keep you informed. As you might not know, Connecticut is one of only five states that fully taxes retired teachers’ pensions. One fourth of our retired teachers move out of state, motivated at least in part, to escape Connecticut’s high tax burden.
If you are a retired CT teacher living out of state, you can still have a voice. You can join the SFCRTA (the largest affiliate in the state) and the ARTC (Association of Retired Teachers of CT) and add your voice to ours. On these two websites (www.sfcrta.com & www.artct.org) you can find updates on the various political agendas, as well as contact information for various State and Federal officials. Through the ARTC, we have a lobbyist who continuously works the State Capitol in Hartford. In addition, we do remind our elected officials as to the number of members our organizations represent, and it has had an impact.
Respectfully,
Frank Cooper, President
TRB information – please go to: http://www.ct.gov/trb for inormation on the Teachers’ Retirement Board. Here you will find names of board members, meeting schedules, and contact information.
Who are we?
- The Southern Fairfield County Retired Teachers’ Association represents teachers who
1) taught in or
2) who now reside in the following towns
Darien Greenwich New Canaan
Norwalk Stamford Weston
Westport Wilton
- Here are some of the towns in which our members live:
Bethel Branford Bridgeport Danbury
Easton Fairfield Meriden Monroe
New Haven New Milford Newtown Oxford
Redding Stratford West Haven
- Here are some of the states in which our members live:
Arizona California Colorado Delaware
District of Colombia Florida Georgia Illinois
Iowa Maine Maryland Massachusetts
Michigan Minnesota Montana Nevada
New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina
Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island
South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah
Vermont Washington Wyoming
- Our members taught anywhere from 10 to 46 years.
- One member said that SFCRTA membership was the best $15 he had ever spent. Others often thank us for our efforts. Governor Malloy identified former President John Kane as one of the first people to suggest eliminating the tax on our pensions, since we are one of only five states to fully tax teacher pensions. Jamie Stirling of Stirling Benefits has commented that hearing from retired teachers made a difference in the decision to include the herpes vaccine in the coverage for the STRB insurance plan.
- Together we do make a difference!