Record of Testimony

Many retirees have died without receiving a promised Cola benefit. Many more will if we have to wait for the fund to reach 80%. Please consider lowering the 80% threshold to 70% and also allow retirees to start collecting a Cola after 5 or 6 years after retirement.

Mr. Diossa, please lets get this corrected! What was done was wrong for all the people who were employed and did not get what they were told. Thank You

Submitted via online webform

I would like to let you know how negatively the retirement security act has impacted me personally. I am a current public school teacher with 29 years of dedicated service to my district.

For thirty years, I went to work everyday to a job I loved that was extremely challenging and time-consuming. It was so rewarding to know that I was positively affecting the lives of thousands of young men and women as a public high school educator.

As a public high school teacher who retired in 2009, I understood that the RI pension plan reform bill had to be adjusted. The age requirement to collect the pension, the automatic 3% compounded cost of living adjustment, and the 28 year requirement for retirement needed to be changed.

I am writing to ask you to do all that you can do to restore the COLA that was promised to teachers by contract upon retirement.  

Dear Treasurer Diossa

The loss of cola in 2011 is now adversely impacting my normal lifestyle. With the cost of food, insurance, taxes all going through the roof the last three years, I'm living paycheck to paycheck now in my elderly years.

The on going decline in the value of Rhode Island municipal and state retirees has gone well beyond what is fair to those of us who dedicated our entire working lives to a system that promised the earned benefits we all paid in to.  When the pension system was deemed

I am testifying that this cut in COLA has resulted in a hardship for me as I am a single retiree juggling payments for living expenses as well as subsidizing my sister who is a single retiree who does not have Social Security. Please help!