Wednesday, January 31, 2007

For TRS Members: Protecting your Retirement Benefits

One of the big issues that the WEA is working on in Olympia this year is the gainsharing provision of TRS 1 and 3. This is a benefit that was promised to us as a part of the retirement systems, but it's also something that the legislature has had their eye on as a way to fund other programs.

Another one of the issues related to retirement is the proposed Rule of 85, whereby members of TRS 2 and TRS 3 could retire with full benefits as soon as the sum of their age and years of experience was greater than 85. As is, the penalties for retiring before 65 are incredibly severe.

You can help by calling your elected official on the legislative hotline, 1-800-562-6000. If you don't know who your representatives are in the state house and senate you can look them up by using the handy Find Your District feature from the Washington State Legislature homepage.

For more information, you can visit the Under the Dome section of the WEA website here.

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