Page 10 - Leadership Matters March 2013 issue.pub
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10
Leadership Week through the eyes of a member
I hope those of you who were
able to attend Leadership Week
found it to be as valuable as I
did. For those of you who were
not able to make it, I wanted to
share some highlights with you.
State’s financial and pension
crisis
I recommend taking a look at
Ralph Martire’s presentation
or complete
While I thought I
understood Martire’s position
and data regarding the state’s financial crisis, I was
almost embarrassed by what I didn’t know, and truly
enlightened by the data Martire presented. It was
amazing to see how easy it was to understand.
As Dr. Clark stated in his introduction, “Ralph
Martire is going to show you in 60 minutes how we
can solve the pension crisis.” It was true, and really
made me wonder why this plan isn’t being considered
more strongly as a true solution. Help us spread the
word!
The basic concept regarding the pension crisis is
simple. We have the problem because the state
borrowed from the system to pay other
obligations. We have had a structural deficit in place
for many, many years. As a result, a repayment
schedule
was
established that is
impossible
for our
state to pay back —
and the legislators
knew that when it
was passed. They
truly “kicked the can”
to us and now the state must face the consequences.
The really important fact that Martire’s presentation
made very clear is that we can eliminate the pension
crisis by re-amortizing (restructuring) our debt. It won’t
be a quick fix, but as he pointed out, it took us many,
many years to get into this mess. Restructuring our
debt over 45 years
will
fix our problem. It actually
saves the State billions of dollars over the current
repayment schedule.
Additionally, Martire can show that reducing our
benefits will
not
save TRS. Again, the rhetoric that
reduction in retiree benefits is the solution is purely
another sound bite for the private sector and re-
election bids.
If the restructuring Martire talks about was done,
there would be no need for the cost shift. Again,
please take an hour and look at his presentation. It
will be worth your time – and it is what we need to be
sharing with our legislators.
(Continued on page 11)
Chad Allison
Superintendent
Litchfield District 12
Dr. John Draper tears apart public education myths during his presentation that drew a standing ovation.
