Dear Treasurer Diossa,



I am reaching out in the hopes of receiving the return of a COLA as soon as possible. I have been flatlined for over a decade now. Also, I have been a widow for 8 years and as you can see, I do not have the luxury of his income or Social Security.

Retirees perspective:

This letter is about the effects of the change to the Rhode Island pension system that occurred in 2011.

I retired from teaching in 2016. At that time, I was using money from the sale of my home to supplement my reduced pension. Now that I am using money from my IRA, it is dwindling quickly, as I have to deduct 15% for my taxes. i.e. If I need $10,000, I need to withdraw $11,500 from my account. Inflation has been eating into my monthly check and it is only a matter of time, before I will deplete my IRA. Did I mention, I receive 1/2 of my social security check because of the Windfall Tax. I implore you to do what is right and reinstate the pension, we were promised.

When we went into this profession to be some a teacher we knew we would never become wealthy but we did it anyway because it was a passion to want to educate children. We thought that our retirement would be a great benefit and reward for the vocation we chose. The 2011 pension reform stole this from us. We work longer and make less, Because teachers can’t retire, some are so far removed from the students m, the quality of education is declining. College students stay away from the profession because the salary and benefits are not competitive.

In 1996, after having worked in the banking world for 7 years, I made a career change to become a teacher. I did this for several reasons, but one of them was the pension system. As a retirement specialist in the bank, the RI state pension system was an attractive part of teaching. I was told at the time, that if I worked for 28 years, I would receive 60% of my top 3 earning years. If I wanted to work longer, up to 35 years, I could earn up to 80%. I was NEVER told this could possibly change.

Dear sirs, my name is Roy Weaton .I am a retired teacher.I had money taken out of my paycheck every two weeks for 35 years.I never missed a payment .I could not miss a payment because I had a contract with the State of Rhode Island that I would make my payments and the state would provide me with a pension and a COLA.I fulfilled my part .I have been in touch with Mr.Magaziner He responded as follows Rhode Island pensions. I understand how the 2011 Rhode Island pension adjustment has been difficult for retirees whose cost of living adjustments were frozen.

Honorable James Diossa, State Treasurer

and the Honorable Pension Advisory Working Group

State House, Room 102

Providence R.I. 02903

Dear Group Members:

After 28 years of teaching, at 66 and 6 months old I have retired as June 30th, 2023. In 2012 pension changes were made after I had been teaching for 17 years. The result of the changes reduced my earned years to 41%. Prior to these changes I would have earned 60%. In dollars that means my annual pension is $37,374, instead of 54,694. A reduction of $17,320 for the rest of my retired life.

I had applied for a seat on the Pension Working Advisory Group, hoping to provide expertise and balance to the specialty areas which might repeat and justify the myopic 2011 processes which produced "unintended consequences." I was unsuccessful. The following comments, queries and suggestions represent what I would have emphasized as a member of the group.

I previously submitted and had published two articles in the Your Turn section of the Providence Journal. I'd like to quote from one of them: "Lost in all of this is the fact that following the law doesn’t require an auditor’s report or a Treasurer’s study commission.