We need your help to get House Bill 5136 An Act Relative to Benefits for Teachers over the finish line this year! Write to your state Senator: Pass the Retirement Plus Bill! https://actionnetwork.org/letters/rplus
H.5136 was passed by the House on Thursday, December 11 and combines three important bills that we’ve spent years advocating for - H.2483, An Act Relative to teacher retirement education (Rep. Consalvo), H.2630, An Act relative to benefits for teachers (Rep. Peisch), and S.1702, An Act relative to teacher retirement education (Sen. Miranda).
Please contact your State Senator today and ask them to urge Senate leadership to pass H.5136 before the end of the 2023-2024 session – with time for Governor Healey to sign this important bill into law.
In 2001, Massachusetts introduced Teachers' Alternate Retirement Plan (TARP) or Retirement Plus, an enhanced retirement option for teachers, school nurses, related service providers and other educators with a deduction rate of 11%. All educators hired after July 1, 2001 were automatically enrolled in the new program, but current educators had only 6 months to opt in. A complicated process and confusing branding meant that many educators didn’t properly enroll, or thought they were enrolled when they really weren’t. (For instance, the branding of TARP as “Retirement Plus” caused many eligible teachers to think they were already in the program when they saw a deduction of “9+2%” on their paychecks). Others were unenrolled from the program without notice when they transferred between different school districts. As a result, several thousand educators will have to work for 3-5 years longer to earn the maximum retirement benefit.
This bill would allow current non-TARP educators to opt into the enhanced TARP retirement benefits that current employees receive, by paying the difference between what they’ve paid in deductions since 2001 and what they would have paid if they had opted in at the time plus interest. This “make-up amount” could be paid in either a payment plan or in one lump-sum payment. The legislation would require modest additional state funding of teacher retirement benefits, and would result in substantial savings to local school districts through the retirement of R+ educators and the hiring of new teachers at significantly lower salaries.
Write to your state Senator: Pass the Retirement Plus Bill! https://actionnetwork.org/letters/rplus