Record of Testimony

I am 48 years old and have worked for the State of Rhode Island for 23 years. According to the pension calculator, if I retire at 67 years old after 42 years of dedicating myself to public service, my pension will be $42,000.00 per year. In 2037, I shutter to imagine how much that will support.

This letter is submitted on behalf of Kevin and Linda O’Malley

Dear Sir or Madame:

I worked for the Department of Environmental Management, Parks and Recreation Department for 36 years, more than half of my life time dedicated to serving the people of Rhode Island and its visitors.

I am a retired State employee (RIDOT), and my wife Diane is a retired schoolteacher in the State retirement system. I retired in December 2015 after over 25 years of service. Since that time, I have received one .42% cost-of-living increase to my pension in January 2022.

Dear General Treasurer Diossa and PAWG Committee Members:

It is very difficult for me to express how the pension reform has affected me and all my fellow retirees. However, I will try to put it simply. We have pretty much lived on the same amount of money for 12 years.

n 2008 I retired from the Rhode Island Department of Education after 39 years of public service. For 39 years I paid almost 9% of every paycheck – before taxes - into the pension fund, as mandated by law. Our pensions are not free, as many Rhode Islanders seem to believe.

I retired in 2015. Because of the changes made in 2011 I didn't get the 60%, that was told to me when I started my employment with the state of RI. This was very unfair as I worked for 32 years and planned on the 60% once I retired.

I retired from state service in 2008 after 30+ years. At that time the state informed us of significant cut backs to our medical benefits if we did not retire before Oct. 1, 2008. There was no incentive of $20,000.00 to leave as in subsequent years.

I cannot even begin to convey what losing my cola has meant. It was something I had counted on during my retirement years especially when as we all know nothing ever goes down, it always goes up whether it is cost of living overall or each individual bill we have to pay.