Record of Testimony

I retired from teaching in 2016. At that time, I was using money from the sale of my home to supplement my reduced pension. Now that I am using money from my IRA, it is dwindling quickly, as I have to deduct 15% for my taxes. i.e. If I need $10,000, I need to withdraw $11,500 from my account.

When we went into this profession to be some a teacher we knew we would never become wealthy but we did it anyway because it was a passion to want to educate children. We thought that our retirement would be a great benefit and reward for the vocation we chose.

In 1996, after having worked in the banking world for 7 years, I made a career change to become a teacher. I did this for several reasons, but one of them was the pension system. As a retirement specialist in the bank, the RI state pension system was an attractive part of teaching.

Dear sirs, my name is Roy Weaton .I am a retired teacher.I had money taken out of my paycheck every two weeks for 35 years.I never missed a payment .I could not miss a payment because I had a contract with the State of Rhode Island that I would make my payments and the state would provide me with

Honorable James Diossa, State Treasurer

and the Honorable Pension Advisory Working Group

State House, Room 102

Providence R.I. 02903

Dear Group Members:

I had applied for a seat on the Pension Working Advisory Group, hoping to provide expertise and balance to the specialty areas which might repeat and justify the myopic 2011 processes which produced "unintended consequences." I was unsuccessful.

After 28 years of teaching, at 66 and 6 months old I have retired as June 30th, 2023. In 2012 pension changes were made after I had been teaching for 17 years. The result of the changes reduced my earned years to 41%. Prior to these changes I would have earned 60%.

I previously submitted and had published two articles in the Your Turn section of the Providence Journal. I'd like to quote from one of them: "Lost in all of this is the fact that following the law doesn’t require an auditor’s report or a Treasurer’s study commission.

Dear Mr. Diossa

It is imperative that this Advisory Working Group spend substantial time finding ways to properly relieve the many retirees who are financially hurting greatly due to the COLAs being suspended for them now since 2011.