No Money for Retirees

This year for the state and teacher retirees there will be n0 $500 one time check going to these people retiring this year. The Attorney General Greg Abbott said yes to the bill passing but the legislature created an " unusual and virtually insurmountable legal standard for making the proposed payment by requiring that this office issue a ' conclusive opinion' that such one-time payments are constitutionally and statutorily permissible". The $500 payment was to be made using general state revenue rather than money from the trust funds, which is the normal route for providing additional benefits.

This is unfair to the people retiring this year because many people are counting on this money for their needs and expenses they may have. A lot of people right now are struggling to get by and with the money it could potentially help them with whatever they need it for. Retiree groups were disappointed with the ruling and are going to continue fighting for the additional help for the retirees in the next legistative session which will start in 2011. For these retirees this year, all their hard work all these years, will now lose their retirement bonus from the state. The teachers, which are hard to come by now, are no longer being rewarded for the hard work they put in. Teaching all those years and having to deal with thousands of kids, they can't get a small check of $500 for the time and effort they put in all the years they taught. For the state workers, they work hard and having to deal with all the state business and the government, they no longer get their check either. These people work hard for many years and now the government takes away from them what they had worked so hard for.