From MTA President Merrie Najimy
and Vice President Max Page
A hearing has been scheduled on the MTA-backed early retirement legislation!
Act NOW to tell your story about why this proposal is important to you!
The Joint Committee on Public Service has a scheduled a hearing for H.2620/S.1791, An Act to provide a retirement enhancement opportunity for certain members of the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement System. This in large part due to so many members reaching out to their legislators about this important issue and keeping the momentum going through this summer. Thank you!
The hearing will be held virtually on Sept. 1 and begins at 1 p.m. Any member of the public who would like to speak virtually at the hearing can fill out this form on the State House’s website to pre-register. The deadline to sign up to provide live testimony is Monday, Aug. 30, at 5 p.m. Though the hearing will start at 1 p.m., we do not know the exact timeframe for when this bill will be discussed as there are more than 30 other bills on the agenda for the same hearing. Please do keep in mind that it may be a very long wait if you would like to speak during that time and speakers are limited to 3 minutes. If you are unable to schedule time to speak, the committee is also encouraging the public to submit written testimony, which you can do on your own by emailing Jessica.Foley@mahouse.gov. Submitted testimony will be accepted until Wednesday, Sept. 8, at 5 p.m. Please be sure to indicate the bill numbers in the subject line of your email if you choose to submit testimony this way.
If you would like to submit a pre-recorded video as part of a package of MTA member videos, you can record a 90-second video through MTA’s platform. We will then be able to submit your story as part of a powerful MTA panel. CLICK HERE TO RECORD YOUR STORY
For more information about this proposed legislation, please click here for a fact sheet on the bill and click here for a Q&A document that answers frequently asked questions. The bill would provide eligible MTRS members with the opportunity to purchase years of service and/or age in order to retire before the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year. Eligibility requirements are listed in the fact sheet linked above.
If you have any other questions about the proposal, please email MTA Legislative Coordinator Victoria Reim at vreim@massteacher.org. If you have questions about your specific retirement options, please visit MTA’s retirement planning webpage.
We thank you very much again for your work moving this bill forward. The road will continue after this hearing next week but this is an important step and we will be on the journey together.
In Solidarity,
Merrie and Max