Page 27 - FOP BlueNote 2017 May June Issue WEST FINAL
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recruit. We have to rememTbeRr wIhVatIitAaka after work No COLA for Local
We have a winner!!! Government Retirees
Kelly Nolan, President of River City Lodge 76, is the winner of the By Jeff Gray – NC FOP Legislative Agent
March/April BlueNote TRIVIA contest. Kelly quickly and correctly
identified the youngster in the photograph as State President Randy House Bill 497, “Retirement Systems 2%
Hagler. This photograph generated many responses from across the Funds,” originally provided for a 2% COLA
for all pension funds operated by the State
State. including the Teachers and State Employees
Retirement System (TSERS) and the Local
So to recap, the correct TRIVIA answer for the photograph from the Government Employees Retirement System
March/April issue of the BlueNote is State President Randy Hagler. (LGERS). House Bill 497 was heard in the
Thank you to everyone who submitted answers to the Trivia ques- House Pensions and Retirement Committee
on Wednesday, April 5, and was amended to
tion. remove local government retirees (LGERS)
If you did not win the contest this time, do not give up. Keep sub- from the bill. The amended bill received a
mitting your answers and send them in quickly and maybe you too favorable report and was then referred to the
Committee on Appropriations.
can be a TRIVIA winner like Lodge 76 President Kelly Nolan.
The lack of a cost of living increase for
Now here is your chance to compete in an exciting local government retirees – including, of
round of BlueNote TRIVIA. course, retired officers and deputies – has
been frustrating for many years. Numerous
Put on your thinking caps. Can you identify the individual in this bills have been introduced in past Sessions,
photo? but none have yet to succeed. More frustrat-
ing is the fact that State retirees (TSERS)
Hint: This is neither Bozo the Clown nor Rudolph the Red-Nosed have received increases while it seems local
Reindeer. retirees continue to be neglected in the
COLA debate. So why is this?
If you can identify this FOP member, send an email to terry-
mangum@frontier.com with your answer along with the name of the Our friend, newly elected State Treasurer
Lodge you belong to. The Trivia answer will be posted in the Dale Folwell, explained the issue of cost of
July/August issue of the BlueNote along with the name of the first living increases when he addressed the at-
individual submitting the correct answer. tendees at the Spring FOP Board of Direc-
tors meeting held recently in Lexington, NC.
The laws governing both systems provide
that an increase cannot be given unless the
return on the investments of the system ex-
ceed a certain amount. The investments for
neither system have exceeded the threshold,
however, the legislature has funded the in-
crease for State retirees but has not for local
retirees. So there is a difference. A bill can
be introduced to award a COLA for mem-
bers of LGERS, but without the available
“profits” from the system’s investments, or
an appropriation from the General Assem-
bly, there can be no COLA for local govern-
ment retirees.
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