Jean Halvorsen

I am writing for return of our COLAs. I am a speech-language pathologist who worked in the Providence Public Schools for 37 years. I retired with my pension and organized my budget and financial outlook based upon my pension and my expected COLA. My husband, Richard Mowry, was a police officer for over 30 years in North Smithfield, RI. He took his job seriously and went beyond to help and protect the residents of his town. His pension was small and he was pleased to get his COLA which helped with bills. Then it was gone and here is a man in his 70's wanting to stay retired and not return to working. Sadly Dick passed away in November 2019 and never lived long enough to see the growth of advocates seeking return of the COLA and will never see the return of his COLA. The people in their 70s and 80s like him worked under a contract which included COLAs and many cannot supplement their pension by going back to work. I truly hope that you help us secure the COLAs so that us older retirees can spend their days with so much less stress and anxiety than they have now.

Submitted via online webform