Roberta Emery

Dear Members of this CRITICAL Working Group,

Here is my story:

Graduate of William M. Davies Vocational Technical High School, 1980

Veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Honorably Discharged due to a significant medical injury.

Began Rhode Island College Fall of 1982.

Graduated RIC May 1987, Double Major: Elementary AND Special Education, Minor: Psychology

Married August 1, 1987

Began teaching in Central Falls September 1987

Found out AFTER teaching for 9 years, that social security benefits I had already earned prior to beginning teaching full time, would NOT be made available to me in totality, when I reached my full social security age.

Knowing I planned to remain a teacher until at least the age of 60...it was too far away to fully comprehend any issues.

I knew I'd contribute to my pension, knew that until I reached full vested status at 20 years, my contributions to the state pension system would increase from time to time...but I was assured...once fully vested NOTHING could prohibit me from retiring at whatever term was in place the very day of my vesting. From that next day, I could sigh some relief that I had reached the "pinnacle".

My husband, 12 years my senior, and I had begun to seriously set retirement goals. Knowing that I would only receive a fraction of my social security due to what I personally dubbed, the "Punishment Rule" called WEP. We figured we'd be fine with his social security, and that should he pass before me, I would be okay due to receiving his as a surviving spouse. What NO ONE told me until around 2005, was that there was another "Punishment Rule" called GPO...that no matter what, I would NOT receive surviving spouse benefits.

Fast forward a few years and the state now needs to replace monies they borrowed from the pension accounts of teachers, police, fire, municipal and state workers to provide aid to those who lost accounts in the Credit Union failure due to Joseph Molicone (and other players no doubt). trying to wrestle the "how" of repaying those "loans"...a ruse was created...one called a "Pension Crisis".

The general public was misled into thinking that public servants were greedy, were not entitled to promised conditions, and basically were a pain in the state's side. The general public were deliberately misled by false "facts"...uproar against the hardest working folks in this state began and boy, were some roars of anger LOUD!!

The legislators asked for head counts on people fully vested...ERSRI provided erroneous numbers!! For instance (and I am NOT the only on this happened to, as I had others check and they too had issues like me) when these discussions started, I had 23 years in the system. I felt that since I reached that "pinnacle" of my full vesting at 20 years, no changes would apply...because I was fully VESTED!!

When I checked into my ERSRI account, low and behold, It showed I only had 17 years in. Had me as non vested. I made multiple calls to the office and kept getting responses that I was wrong, that "This is what happens when teachers keep jumping from one district to the next." and "Well we had so many pencil written records and they are no longer accessible." I finally told this gal : 1. "You work for me and all other pension contributors!" 2. "Your record keeping systems are NOT my problem, they NEED to be fixed!" 3. "Listen, never mind, I will seek my own legal council now and will let other union members know to check their numbers! and 4. "Let me just say this about your assumption and rude statement to me about teachers jumping from district to district...My very first paycheck came from Central Falls as did the one I received last week. I have NEVER taught anywhere else." At that, I hung up.

Within two hours she was on the phone letting me know that she "found" all of my years and fixed it in the system.

Onto 2010, more talks, hearings and such...legislators were misled on the numbers of fully vested folks. in 2011, they drew a line in the sand and made one side "Folks in Plan A" [those fully vested, those who reached full retirement age requirements-age 50 for teachers] and the other side "Folks in Plan B" [all those not yet fully vested]

I was placed into Plan B...huge reductions in the percentages I'd receive for each year of teaching, change in retirement age to something in the late 60's!!

I was three months from the age of 50!!!! And had 24 years in the same district!! But I fell into the same side of the line as a day 1 teacher!!!

I spoke in depth with Rep. Tom Winfield (now retired) and told him some key pieces: 1. The "vesting" into the pension was indeed a "Promise" from the state! 2. That pension was indeed a "proprietary asset" as I contributed to it!! 3. That the state was creating a division between the general public and the hardest working, lowest paid workers of the state! 4. I told him that he and his fellow elected officials should NOT be getting a full pension with teeny contributions for PART TIME work without "vested time"! 5. that IF they approved these draconian changes...under the false pretense that the pensions were: A. not a "proprietary asset" and B. not a "promise" from the state that should any such person get divorced in the state of RI, the RI judges cannot ever divide said pensions in divorce courts! Can't divide what one does not have "proprietary" ownership of, now can they???

Mr. Winfield was a bit stunned, especially by that last statement. His reply, "We never thought of it like that." He also added "We lowered the vesting to five years, that should make you happy." I immediately came back with this..."Why in the hell would you think five years is good? Why would you even bother with any vesting" as you and all other legislators and Government Officers, simply just told me and all others that their 20 plus years of dedicated, honest and hard years of service meant NOTHING???? If Vesting is not a "promise", why have it?? If the pension limits that I had worked for were not my "property"...then why bother? He had no reply.

Let's move to right now 2023...Due to medical issues, I retired in full, December of 2020. My pension was only 2/3's of what I was promised and what I had earned with my 20 year vesting. I had 33 full years of dedicated service to the city of Central Falls. My husband, now 74 has battled cancer(s) four times now...all due to his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. The pension I currently get, pays the bills and with careful planning, we are actually squirreling some funds away so that we can be assured in 10 years, that I will NOT need welfare or social services because my frozen pension may or may not get pity increases over time.

What has happened is a total injustice. I followed the RULES faithfully! The state changed them to suit their own needs.

The state thought they'd "correct" some of their egregious acts by placing some of us into an "A/B" plan...that is still NOT what was promised!

IF the Federal government reverse course on WEP/GPO (which is highly unlikely) those of us who are in "A/B" plan may get some relief in knowing we can obtain social security like every other hardworking American citizen

Final parting "shot": no elected official should be allowed to receive full state pensions simply because they were elected to a part time job! They should get paid while they are in office and that is it. No other part time worker anywhere, receives a pension, nor do they get medical care! The part time elected folks can get their medical from their fulltime employers!! Full time state officers only, should receive medical care.

Thank you all for your hard work, you have such a difficult task ahead of you. Truly, the only thing that can help folks "caught in the crossfire" of State Officers putting pressure on legislators to create changes because they KNEW they should be replacing those "borrowed" funds. So, they created a "Crisis" and blamed/punished so many dedicated individuals...

I look forward to seeing your results.

Sincerely,

Roberta Emery

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