Re(1): Legislative Brief of 2011 PART 2 IP: 72.185.171.1 Posted on May 9, 2011 at 07:53:25 PM by webmaster
SB 1160 by Senator Gaetz: This bill would have not only done away with DROP but would have made it impossible for someone to come back and draw both a retirement and pay check. This bill was blocked and not heard. Failed
HB 1405 By Representative Ritch Workman: This was the FRS Gutting Benefits bill, it would have several different bill numbers by the end of session but ended up being budget conference/conforming bill 2100. Representative Workman, Mayfield, and O’Toole should get specific attention for increasing the age for special risk retirement. Their reasoning is that 60 is the new 40, and most of the officers are working an extra five years in drop anyway. Special thanks should go to Representative Ana Rivas Logan for attempting to save the COLA. If the legislator had a “D” in front of their name, they fought long and hard for you. If they had an “R” in front of their name, they either played follow the leader or debating and fought against you. (This is of course in the House only)
SB 2100 – FRS Conforming Budget Bill- This bill changed FRS and listed below are the changes that were made. I want to emphasis that this bill came a long way from what was originally intended and that though salary and pension only makes up 3% of the budget, over 1.1 billion dollars that were used to fill the 4 billion budget deficit was taken from the pensions. This was never about fixing a broken system, it was about balancing the budget on the benefits of public employees. Though we won many battles on this issue, below is a list of what the current changes are. The three percent that the employees will be paying does not go into the pension fund, it goes to reduce the employers contribution to FRS. For special risk the employer is paying 11.99% lower than during 2010, so please make note of that savings when going into contract negotiations.
1) For all new hires after July 1, 2011 normal retirement age will increase by 5 years.
2) All employees will pay 3% contribution to their retirement as of July 1, 2011.
3) A Freeze on earning a COLA from July 1, 2011 till 2016.
4) All new hires will have their AFC calculated with their high 8 instead of 5 years.
5) DROP interest rate after July 1, 2011 will be 1.3 instead of 6.5 .
6) All new hires will reach vesting in 8 years instead of 6.
We Defined Benefit Plan, Overtime, Health Insurance Subsidy, contribution is not 5%, COLA is only frozen and DROP was simply reduced to 1.3%.
Good Legislation That We Helped Pass
HB 3/ SB 484 by Representative Nehr and Senator Jack Latvala: This is the Blue Alert bill which is basically that same thing as an amber alert, but affects the assault and/or death of a law enforcement officer. This was also placed on the list of priorities for National and Florida will now help lead the way. This bill passed.
HB 411/ SB 416 by Representative Burgin and Senator Bogdanoff: This bill is simply a public records exemption for video or pictures of the depiction of the killing of another human being. Law Enforcement and the courts will still have access, they just will not have to turn the video or pictures over to the public. This bill was instituted because the press was demanding the video of two police officers killed in the line duty in Tampa. The bill passed.
HB 95 / SB 236 by Representative Bembry and Senator Hays: This bill will allow the parents of fallen veterans to have annual passes to state parks free of charge, and Senator Hays inserted the survivors of fallen law enforcement officers and firefighters into the legislation. The House tried to insist that the language be stripped from the bill, but Senator Hays failed to concur with stripping the language for police and fire out (on the day of memorial) and sent it back to the House of Representatives and the house concurred and sent the bill to the Governor. The FOP President James Preston has agreed to make and issue these passes to the family of the fallen, making it possible for the bill to have a lower fiscal impact and allowed to pass.
Seeing the insurmountable task that we faced this session the legislative committee had the insight to allocate funds for us to fight the battle with outside help. We owe a special thanks to Thomas Grigsby and Pregeiz & Weems, Inc. These lobbyists worked hard on the issues and that made them targets for very little money and a determination to protect the law enforcement officers of this state. They were an amazing asset/tool and we commend them for all of their hard work.
Last but probably the most crucial is a huge thank you to the United Labor Coalition, which is made up of over 49 unions (big and small) that banned together and fought all pension and anti-union issues. Thousands of hours and dollars were spent by this coalition, and it gave us an advantage of large mass numbers and constant media attention. The organizing leader was the AFL/CIO (Mike Williams, Rich Templin and Josh Anijar) This Coalition was made up of AFL/CIO, FOP, FPFF, FEA, ATU, AFSCME and many others. Our numbers and commitment were strong, and we look forward to continuing our participation in the Coalition, as we still have another three years under this Governor.
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