Nick De Mayo

Dear General Treasurer, Members of the Investment Commission, and Governor of Rhode Island,

As a 35-veteran of teaching in an inner-city elementary school and then an inner-city middle school in Woonsocket, RI, I think I did an exceptional job educating the youth of Rhode Island from which you now benefit. I’m sure many of “my kids” went on to fulfill themselves by garnering outstanding jobs and helping the tax base of Rhode Island.

We (the State of Rhode Island and we, members of the ERSRI, had a contract, a pension contract, upon which I based my future years of retirement. You, through the efforts of then-Governor Gina Raimondo and, now, Commerce Secretary in the Biden Aministration, broke that contract. You reneged on the deal! I would urge any kid wanting to go into teaching in Rhode Island today, not to do it, since the state of Rhode Island breaks its promises, and if the state could do it to us, Rhode Islanders who served the state in various categories and departments and professions, then the State of Rhode Island, can do it to you, too!

With class sizes of 25 students or more to one teacher, it is crazy to want to teach under the current trends in society. And, now, I’ve read where they want teachers to teach for 38-years in RI !! That’s suicide, personal burn-out! My desire to teach, I believe, cost me a divorce from my first wife.

With the loss of our COLA’s, we struggle to pay our current bills, medications, hospitalizations, and taxes. And, with the institution of Bidenomics, it is even more difficult on the former Middle Class, those of us who worked so diligently to make Rhode Island a better place. Whether we stayed in RI or retired elsewhere, we are severely burdened by our losses for which we earned, and upon which we planned.

The State of Rhode Island should immediately reverse its course of action, and return our COLA’s to us which we were contracted to receive. Any change should have been made with new members of the ERSRI, as they entered their various departments, professions, and jobs.

It seems Rhode Island would rather give “free” money to illegals crossing our southern border due to its “sanctuary state status” than pay those who served and worked all their lives to make Rhode Island a better place.

Please return our COLA’s and our respected status to those who served the people of Rhode Island. Your actions back in 2011 were short-sighted and perhaps politically-motivated.

Submitted via online webform