Make plans now to join us at the Association of Retired Houston Municipal Employees (ARHME) January general membership meeting to be held on Monday, January 23rd, at the E. B. Cape Center, 4501 Leeland Ave., from 11 AM to 1 PM. As always, we have a lot to cover at this meeting, so please arrive early.
This may well be the most important meeting we have held since our founding. Once again, there is a movement underway to make changes to our pensions, this time at the state level. Apparently led by the Greater Houston Partnership, an organization has been formed and a PAC created to raise monies to push for a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit defined benefit pension plans such as ours for all public employees in the State of Texas, and to replace them with defined contribution (401K) plans. This effort is being pushed by Bill King, former Mayor of Kemah and frequent Chronicle contributor of articles critical of Houston's three pension systems; Patrick Oxford, Chairman of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP; and Charles Swanson, Managing Partner, Ernst & Young LLP, along with several others. How this effort would affect current retirees receiving pensions if it succeeds is uncertain, but once this door is opened there is no telling where it will lead.
As a result of this movement, the state's large pension systems as well as a number of the smaller ones have formed a 501(C)(4) organization, "Texans for a Secure Retirement", to counter this effort. The sole purpose of "Texans for a Secure Retirement" is to protect defined benefit plans for public employees. A PAC was also created to raise the funds necessary to support the effort.
ARHME is joining with "Texans for a Secure Retirement" by offering to help in any way we can, including raising funds to contribute to their PAC. We have obtained 501(C)(4) IRS status for ARHME, and are in the process of forming a PAC to allow us to raise funds to support efforts to protect our pension and benefits. All of this will be discussed at the meeting.
We will have two speakers at the meeting covering topics of interest related to the above. State Representative Anna Hernandez Luna represents House District 143 in the Houston area and, as one of her committee assignments, serves on the house Pensions, Investments, and Financial Services Committee. Representative Luna will inform us of the happenings and discussions at the state level that may affect our pensions and benefits. Our second speaker will be Maxie L. (Max) Patterson, former city employee and current Executive Director of the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems. Mr. Patterson will discuss in more detail the current effort underway to make changes to our pensions and what is being done to counter the effort.
Please pass this notice on to other retirees you know who may not have received the notice and ask them to pass it on also. We need to continue to get the word out to as many retirees as possible so they too can join the effort. Increasing our membership is more important now than ever with what we may have ahead of us. The more retirees we have actively involved at some level, the more likely our concerns will be heard.
For more information about ARHME, please refer to our website at www.arhme.net.
So that we can plan for lunch, please RSVP your attendance to Marian Burton at arhme@sbcglobal.net.
See you there –George Bravenec
President
ARHME Board of Directors
This may well be the most important meeting we have held since our founding. Once again, there is a movement underway to make changes to our pensions, this time at the state level. Apparently led by the Greater Houston Partnership, an organization has been formed and a PAC created to raise monies to push for a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit defined benefit pension plans such as ours for all public employees in the State of Texas, and to replace them with defined contribution (401K) plans. This effort is being pushed by Bill King, former Mayor of Kemah and frequent Chronicle contributor of articles critical of Houston's three pension systems; Patrick Oxford, Chairman of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP; and Charles Swanson, Managing Partner, Ernst & Young LLP, along with several others. How this effort would affect current retirees receiving pensions if it succeeds is uncertain, but once this door is opened there is no telling where it will lead.
As a result of this movement, the state's large pension systems as well as a number of the smaller ones have formed a 501(C)(4) organization, "Texans for a Secure Retirement", to counter this effort. The sole purpose of "Texans for a Secure Retirement" is to protect defined benefit plans for public employees. A PAC was also created to raise the funds necessary to support the effort.
ARHME is joining with "Texans for a Secure Retirement" by offering to help in any way we can, including raising funds to contribute to their PAC. We have obtained 501(C)(4) IRS status for ARHME, and are in the process of forming a PAC to allow us to raise funds to support efforts to protect our pension and benefits. All of this will be discussed at the meeting.
We will have two speakers at the meeting covering topics of interest related to the above. State Representative Anna Hernandez Luna represents House District 143 in the Houston area and, as one of her committee assignments, serves on the house Pensions, Investments, and Financial Services Committee. Representative Luna will inform us of the happenings and discussions at the state level that may affect our pensions and benefits. Our second speaker will be Maxie L. (Max) Patterson, former city employee and current Executive Director of the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems. Mr. Patterson will discuss in more detail the current effort underway to make changes to our pensions and what is being done to counter the effort.
Please pass this notice on to other retirees you know who may not have received the notice and ask them to pass it on also. We need to continue to get the word out to as many retirees as possible so they too can join the effort. Increasing our membership is more important now than ever with what we may have ahead of us. The more retirees we have actively involved at some level, the more likely our concerns will be heard.
For more information about ARHME, please refer to our website at www.arhme.net.
So that we can plan for lunch, please RSVP your attendance to Marian Burton at arhme@sbcglobal.net.
See you there –George Bravenec
President
ARHME Board of Directors
Posted January 4, 2012
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