Joann Lombardi

My testimony concerns only those individuals who had retired prior to the pension overhaul of 2011. I am one of those individuals. I retired in 2006 following a thirty-two year career at the Department of Labor and Training. I spoke to my accountant prior to submitting my retirement notification. He advised me that I would be financially secure with my pension from the state of Rhode Island, my Social Security benefits and my cost-of-living adjustments. After I had been retired for five years the situation changed. My cost-of-living was taken away. I was and continue to be a single individual and a homeowner. The last thirteen years have been a terrible struggle. The loss of the cost-of-living adjustments has caused the greatest financial hardship to those who were retired before the pension changes were instituted. We had no way to make up the loss of funds. Those individuals who were still working had options. They received periodic cost-of-living adjustments, contractual raises and possibly promotions. We had none of that. My only concern is for those who were already retired when the pension changes were made. Please make us whole. Please restore the colas to what they were prior to the pension overhaul and give us the thirteen years of money that we have gone without. Please also continue to pay us that cola amount beginning today and until we die. We are a finite number of individuals. Our numbers will not increase. They will only decrease. Please take care of those already retired at the time of the pension overhaul first. We have suffered the greatest yet we seem to be the forgotten ones. Thank you very much.

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