2023 Legislative Goals Update
LivingPower September/October 2023

Representing our state’s more than 357,000 state and local retirees, your NCRGEA board of directors, executive director, and government relations team create a series of legislative goals that best addresses the quality of life for North Carolina’s government retirees. These goals are developed to align with the legislative biennium, a two-year session consisting of one long and one short session, beginning in each odd-number year.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit our country, there was a dramatic shift in the quality of life for everyone, including our members and all in retirement. NCRGEA worked to address this with more holistic and expansive legislative goals focusing on healthcare, telehealth, and broadband.
Our focus to keep our state’s pension system healthy and productive for you and generations of retirees remains steadfast. In this new age, job vacancies in all industries have increased substantially. This is especially true in government, where roughly 30 percent of public sector openings remain unfilled. Why does this matter to you? All public sector employees contribute to their respective pension systems. When vacancies are high, less employee and employer revenue is contributed to the pension systems.
Here’s a status report of 2023-2024 biennium legislative goals:
- Advocate for annual cost of living adjustments for all government retirees.
While the budget remains unfinished at press time, your NCRGEA government relations team has tirelessly pursued additional money for state and local retirees. Local retirees can only receive a bonus or COLA with approval by the Local Government Retirement System Board of Trustees. Such a vote will likely occur in January 2024. On our website, you can learn more about the Local Government Trustees and statutes relating to Local Government COLA processes. For state government retirees and retired teachers, bonus or COLA money is expected in the final state budget. We will send a legislative update to all members by email when the biennium budget is approved. - Strengthen the state’s defined benefit plan to attract and retain the best and brightest public servants.
Efforts to increase salaries for teachers and state government professionals are well underway, and such raises will be released when the state house and senate agree on a tax package as well as salary pay for active employees. - Ensure the State of North Carolina will continue to fulfill its constitutional requirement to fully fund North Carolina Retirement Systems and the State Health Plan.
The State of North Carolina is bound by the North Carolina Constitution and case law to guarantee pensioners’ benefits. The state will fully fund both the pension system and State Health Plan this biennium. - Increase in-person and telehealth access, improving health outcomes for retirees.
Healthcare for all North Carolinians has been a battleground in the General Assembly. The largest has been a shift in legislative opinion regarding Medicaid expansion. At the same time, significant legislation on how hospitals are approved and managed, along with bills focused on improving health outcomes for the elderly and children, have been debated. - Expand first, middle, and last-mile broadband opportunities to provide increased, dependable, affordable access to broadband.
Six broadband bills were introduced for the 2023 long session, many including expanded access in rural areas. An existing effort, the GREAT grant act, has included stepped-up funding since the pandemic. - Expand the Bailey tax exemption for state and local retirees and pursue other tax exemption opportunities.
Tax exemption bills for government retirees were filed in both the House and Senate. It appears future discussion of this type of legislation may roll into next year’s short session.
More details on the status of bills related to NCRGEA legislative’s agenda can be found on NCRGEA’s FastDemocracy Bill Tracker, that is available to you on our website.
2024 State Health Plan Open Enrollment Medicare Outreach Events
LivingPower September/October 2023
Open Enrollment is October 9th-27th.
Learn more about your 2024 health plan options to help you make the best choice for 2024!
Plan to attend one of the State Health Plan’s Medicare Outreach events. Register by visiting the State Health Plan’s website at www.shpnc.org/upcoming-events.

Statement on Budget from NCRGEA Executive Director Tim O’Connell
September 20, 2023
Tuesday night, legislative leadership from both the House and Senate chambers announced that they had reached a $30 billion budget agreement after a weeks-long stalemate between the two chambers. The budget includes a 4 percent bonus for retired teachers and state government employees. This 4 percent bonus will be distributed in November 2023. Retirees may receive an additional bonus or a cost-of-living adjustment next year in the 2024 legislative short session. The 2020-2022 biennium budget included bonuses totaling 6 percent for state employees, including the additional 4% awarded in the legislature’s short session last year.
The executive leadership and board of NCRGEA wish to thank the legislature for its work to provide inflation-negating money for our state’s deserving retirees. We also want to thank the many legislative champions who fought determinedly on behalf of more than 250,000 state retirees who taught, served, or protected the people of North Carolina and continue to contribute to society and their local economies in meaningful ways. While it looks like this chapter is successfully ending, our work for local government retirees continues in conjunction with the Local Government Employees’ Trustees Board and related organizations. We will never cease to strongly advocate for all government retirees in North Carolina.
Hitting the Road with NCRGEA

Hello North Carolina local government and state retirees! North Carolina Retired Governmental
Employees’ Association’s in-person Local Outreach Meetings took a short break in July and August—
but we’re coming back in September stronger than ever.
NCRGEA is back on the road with seven in-person meetings in September and October. We are fortunate to have our good friends from the NC Department of Insurance’s Senior Health Information Insurance Program [SHIIP] and Humana to advise on your open enrollment processes. Our representatives from AMBA will offer information on supplemental dental and vision programs. These meetings will be a great opportunity to get your questions answered by subject matter experts. Mark your calendars!
A Message from Executive Director Tim O’Connell
August 30, 2023

Today, I write to you as our state prepares for the advent of Hurricane Idalia. We North Carolinians are not strangers to such events. Many of our NCRGEA members played significant past roles in developing emergency preparedness plans, participating in rescue operations and frequently working through long and stressful recovery efforts in their communities — even when their own residences and families were impacted. Our thoughts are with all the current public service employees charged with these responsibilities in North Carolina and beyond with this pending weather event.
I encourage you to monitor the tracking of #HurricaneIdalia through your preferred weather information source and review the information provide by the State of North Carolina at www.readync.gov.
Wishing everyone the most positive outcome, and once again express our gratitude to the public service staff who will be working on behalf of us all with Hurricane Idalia’s projected path toward North Carolina.
Sincerely,
Tim O’Connell
NCRGEA Executive Director
www.NCRGEA.com