Letter to the editor

HB 220 needs to be passedTo the editor:

HB 220 is heading to the Finance Committee. This bill would give first responders and teachers a retirement plan. Currently we have none. If you are a teacher hired after 2006, you will never be able to retire. I fall into this category. I enlisted in the Navy at seventeen; served for ten years; settled in Alaska and raised four children. I went back to school, earned a bachelor degree, and started teaching in 2011. I didn’t know the dire circumstances of our retirement until a went to a seminar. Approximately 100 teachers gave an audible gasp when the speaker informed us of Tier 3 benefits. He also informed us that our social security would be penalized because we were a teacher in the state of Alaska. All the monies I put in during my teenage years; Navy years; and part-time jobs currently; are pushed into a complex formula and the end results is that the government will keep two-thirds or all of my money. So, no social security benefits and no retirement plan. It is an unsustainable situation in our state that needs to be fixed. HB 220 fixes it. It has neutral cost and gives first responders and teachers a fair chance at having a retirement plan. If our state representatives and senators read and educate themselves on this situation, they should be overwhelming voting to pass it through. If they don’t, they will be hurting the base structure of our community.

Kathleen Yerbich,

Palmer