PFFPNCNEWS

During the past several months the PFFPNC has been preparing for the 2006 short legislative session. A number of meetings with various groups of similar interest have been held. The purposes of these meetings are to identify common ground for working together on issues and road blocks that might create failure.

On several occasions since the last session, a very loose "Workers" Legislative Roundtable has met to share their legislative agenda and issues which each are planning to work on during the coming session. There is hope that the groups could join forces on a couple of issues and commit to work on some long term issues (eg. health care, taxes). The groups in this coalition are the PFFPNC, NC AFL-CIO, Communication Workers of America, NC Justice Center, NC Coalition of Police, NC Association of Educators, State Employees Association of NC and NC Trial Lawyers Association. This relationship always seems to come together anytime there is an assault on the State's Worker's Comp Laws.

Another is the Gateway Coalition. This group is all the fire organizations within the state plus other state related groups such as the NC Department of Insurance and the State Community Colleges. As with any such group, the purpose is to identify common ground so that all the organizations can work together on common issues. While it is the perception of some fire personnel that the group has not accomplished much, it has been very helpful to avoid introducing opposing legislation. It has also fostered a better understanding between fire groups.

The Retirement System Association Roundtable is another group that the NC Department of State Treasurer, Retirement Systems Division has brought together. The most beneficial outcome of this group is that it has helped all organizations who lobby for legislative issues to understand the problems of the system better.

As always, we find ourselves disagreeing with the League of Municipalities and Counties on several issues. This session the cities and counties would like for as much of the profits as possible to remain in the system. Currently, local governments contribute 4.8% of payroll into the Local Governmental Employees Retirement System (LGERS) while employees contribute a full 6%. Employers have made no secret of their desire to keep their contributions at this level and possibly reduce them even more in the future.

Our position is to leave a reasonable amount of surplus in the system in the event the economy declines but use as much as possible for retirees' raises and when possible raise the multiplier.

One of the bigger hurtles we have to cross in increasing the multiplier is that the State and Teachers' multiplier is at 1.82% and the Local Government is at 1.85%. The State System has a lower profit percentage than the Local government System and this has reduced opportunity to increase the multiplier. To compound the complexity of enabling legislation retirees in the State System seem to have more influence than State active employees and continually ask the legislators to use the profits of the System to give the retirees raises rather than increase their multiplier. Consequently, when Legislators are asked to increase the multiplier for the Local Government System, they are continually reminded that LGERS is already higher than the State System and are reluctant to raise the local government multiplier for fear of a state employee backlash.

The PFFPNC will continue to search for every way possible to increase the retirement of our members to an acceptable level. We will be taking advantage of this short session to continue the educational process of key legislators.

The 2006 short session is scheduled to begin May 9 at 12:00 PM. If the legislative process works like it is suppose to (it rarely does), the budget will be set by the end of the fiscal year, June 30. The majority of time, it continues into August or later.



	2006 Professional Fire Fighters and Paramedics of North Carolina Endorsements North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarah Parker Sara Parker Seat Judge Robin Hudson Wainwright Seat Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson Timmons Seat Justice Mark Martin Mark Martin Seat North Carolina Court of Appeals Justice Bob Hunter Bob Hunter Seat Judge Linda Stephens Stephens Seat

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		North Carolina Legislative Session During the past several months the PFFPNC has been preparing for the 2006 short legislative session. A number of meetings with various groups of similar interest have been held. The purposes of these meetings are to identify common ground for working together on issues and road blocks that might create failure. On several occasions since the last session, a very loose "Workers" Legislative Roundtable has met to share their legislative agenda and issues which each are planning to work on during the coming session. There is hope that the groups could join forces on a couple of issues and commit to work on some long term issues (eg. health care, taxes). The groups in this coalition are the PFFPNC, NC AFL-CIO, Communication Workers of America, NC Justice Center, NC Coalition of Police, NC Association of Educators, State Employees Association of NC and NC Trial Lawyers Association. This relationship always seems to come together anytime there is an assault on the State's Worker's Comp Laws. Another is the Gateway Coalition. This group is all the fire organizations within the state plus other state related groups such as the NC Department of Insurance and the State Community Colleges. As with any such group, the purpose is to identify common ground so that all the organizations can work together on common issues. While it is the perception of some fire personnel that the group has not accomplished much, it has been very helpful to avoid introducing opposing legislation. It has also fostered a better understanding between fire groups. The Retirement System Association Roundtable is another group that the NC Department of State Treasurer, Retirement Systems Division has brought together. The most beneficial outcome of this group is that it has helped all organizations who lobby for legislative issues to understand the problems of the system better. As always, we find ourselves disagreeing with the League of Municipalities and Counties on several issues. This session the cities and counties would like for as much of the profits as possible to remain in the system. Currently, local governments contribute 4.8% of payroll into the Local Governmental Employees Retirement System (LGERS) while employees contribute a full 6%. Employers have made no secret of their desire to keep their contributions at this level and possibly reduce them even more in the future. Our position is to leave a reasonable amount of surplus in the system in the event the economy declines but use as much as possible for retirees' raises and when possible raise the multiplier. One of the bigger hurtles we have to cross in increasing the multiplier is that the State and Teachers' multiplier is at 1.82% and the Local Government is at 1.85%. The State System has a lower profit percentage than the Local government System and this has reduced opportunity to increase the multiplier. To compound the complexity of enabling legislation retirees in the State System seem to have more influence than State active employees and continually ask the legislators to use the profits of the System to give the retirees raises rather than increase their multiplier. Consequently, when Legislators are asked to increase the multiplier for the Local Government System, they are continually reminded that LGERS is already higher than the State System and are reluctant to raise the local government multiplier for fear of a state employee backlash. The PFFPNC will continue to search for every way possible to increase the retirement of our members to an acceptable level. We will be taking advantage of this short session to continue the educational process of key legislators. The 2006 short session is scheduled to begin May 9 at 12:00 PM. If the legislative process works like it is suppose to (it rarely does), the budget will be set by the end of the fiscal year, June 30. The majority of time, it continues into August or later.