Incentive, Incentive, Incentive...Lobby Day 2009

As one might expect, Lobby Day this year was dominated by one theme: Retirement Stimulus for education employees. It was noted by Ed Sarpolous, GA Director, that the only piece of positive news that has come out of Lansing in the past 60 days has come from the MEA. In some respects that is true. All that the Governor has talked about has been cuts, cuts and more cuts.

Since we came out with our proposal, the Governor has also proposed a school retirement incentive. However, there are some key differences:
1.) The MEA plan is a change from 1.5 to 2.0 in the multiplier used to calculate your pension. Governor Granholm's plan would be a one time only bonus. This bonus could be as much as half of the teacher's salary.
2.) The MEA plan includes ALL school employees; Governor Granholm's plan is only intended for teachers, excluding ESP and administrators.
3.) The MEA plan is intended to keep the savings generated by the incentive at the local level; Governor Granholm's plan would require local school districts to share in the cost of the incentive by matching a portion of the State bonus.

In other Lobby Day events, 9GH had over 20 members and even a couple of area administrators attend lobbying activities. Groups were able to meet with the Representatives Calley and Huckleberry. We also visited their offices and met with their respective chief of staff. In the case of Rep. Calley, this was our second year visiting his office. 9 members were able to meet with Representative Calley at his office as well as during lunch. (We also meet with him the night before at the Leg Council held at the Corner Landing...lots of face time with Rep. Calley over the past 24 hours!) During these meetings, he stated that he is in support of the MEA version of the retirement stimulus.

All in all, Lobby Day was a success. For more info on Lobby Day, visit www.mea.org