Record of Testimony

Being a retired state worker for 25 years now, I am extremely disappointed in the decision to include retirees in vacating the 3% cola back in 2011. This was an erroneous decision by Gov. Raimondo. She disregarded not only state law as well as the contract I have with the state.

I retired in June after 37 yrs in public education. When I started teaching, I worked in Massachusetts. In 1987 I accepted a job in RI. We were told we had free insurance and a great retirement. Much better than Mass. If I worked 28-35 years, I could retire and get a pension of up to 80%.

I have just one request of this group - do a better job than was done by Ms. Raimondo at balancing utility with justice. We should not be left to live in fear and desperation. Thank you.

To the Esteemed Pension Advisory Working Group:

I am a retired Guidance Counselor from the Narragansett School System. For the last 24 years, I have lived in Sarasota, FL. I was living the relaxed life of a typical retiree.

I am recently retired. I really feel for those who retired 15 - 20 years ago and have had minimal COLA increases. Constantly losing purchasing power. Having been hired in 2000, the group I'm in really got screwed in the maximum percent of last years wages that would be paid when we retired.

I had previously belonged to AFSCME/Retirees, and fled that group in search of real representation. The retiree agenda was clearly dominated by union oversight.

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.

I can’t attend the meeting but just wanted to say that I retired in 2017 haven’t had any increase in my pension since then but my part D medical has more than doubled since then If this could be passed along I will appreciate thank you.

Submitted via email

Good afternoon,

Let me start by saying how much I appreciate this group being formed. I am a retired firefighter with 30 years of service. I took my regular retirement when the stress of my job became to great and started causing health issues.