Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1297492
As always, WEA-Retired thanks each of our active staff for all you do every day for your students and Wyoming education. Our gratitude is even deeper, considering the COVID-19 situation and protocols with which you are working. Please stay safe. The $1.5 billion budget deficit Wyoming is facing has been brewing for decades. Economists and regular citizens have been warning we were headed down a dangerous road by relying on the energy industry to carry the state fiscally. "Diversification!" has been the cry of many. A study commissioned by the Wyoming Legislature in 2016 found that diversification was not the answer: Wyoming's tax structure is both regressive and ineffective. The study shows that Wyoming has no choice but to address Wyoming's faulty tax structure. If we do not, economic diversification w ould do more harm than good. Additionally, it should be clear that Wyoming cannot cut its way out of this crisis. The reality is that we must find new revenue streams. All options must be given true consideration if we are to address the grave revenue issues facing Wyoming and her citizens. We must start now with this election. A strong 2020 voter turnout is essential. We need elected officials who wi ll address our budget woes and other issues. We must move away from the negative rhetoric we see across Wyoming. We must elect officials who offer solution-oriented, informed discourse and action. We must VOTE, and we must reach out to those who are disillusioned or apathetic. Sadly, even many of our colleagues do not vote or are not informed voters. Please talk to at least one other person who may not vote and help and encourage them to bring their voice to the ballot box. Please do what you can to put community and education-oriented elected officials in office. In this budget crisis, retired and current public service employees wonder, "Is my pension safe?" Yes, it is. The Wyoming Retirement System (WRS) is healthy and well-managed. A WRS official told me, "our investment professionals are experts skilled in finding the small winds of investment gains that make up the large winds" of the WRS' investment income. Please visit wrs.gov to view the WRS "2020 Summary Report". This twelve-page report is easy to read and packed full of interesting and reassuring information. Page 8 shows that 70% of benefits paid come from investment returns. On page 4, you will find that Wyoming has the lowest management costs in the nation at 2%. Page 3 gives us a window into who our WRS retired brothers and sisters are vocationally. Many people wonder if retirees are greedy to ask for a benefits increase during this budget crisis. First, the WRS corpus is separate from the state's ge neral budget. Second, not only will retirees benefit from some type of benefits increase, but so will businesses and services in our communities. The National Institute on Retirement Security reports that, in Wyoming, for every dollar WRS Retirees receive in benefits, $1.22 is returned to their communities. Third, it is time. There has been no WRS benefits increase since 2012. Current law states that the WRS must be fully funded before a COLA is granted. This will not happen for 30 years. I firmly believe if we do not move off this "no increase till the system is 100% funded" attitude, that decree will become entrenched in the minds of not only the legislators and general citizenry but also with current and future WRS beneficiaries. Please stay tuned as the WEA and WEA-R and other members of the Wyomin g Coalition for a Healthy Retirement formulate our plan for the upcoming legislative session. We will need everyone's help to bring a WRS benefits increase to fruition. Retired Retired "We in America do not have a government by the majority. We have a government by the majority of people who vote." —Thomas Jefferson Vicki Swenson President WEA-R vicki.swenson@yahoo.com "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." — Franklin D. Roosevelt. Fall Greetings WEA, In Appreciation, Vicki Swenson President WEA-R vicki.swenson@yahoo.com 26