Lake Case Update: Overview 2023

June 15, 2023

NCRGEA continues its work to advance, promote, and protect the benefits, interests, and well-being of North Carolina’s retired state and local public servants in the Lake Case. Click the video at left to hear a report from ABC11 News in Raleigh.

As Executive Director Tim O’Connell explains in this video: “To take care of them in the retirement years, based upon a contractual promise, is being a good steward for North Carolina.”

2023 Legislative Goals Update

LivingPower September/October 2023

District 94 Representative Jeffrey Elmore, right, and NCRGEA’s Executive Director, Tim O’Connell, discuss the importance of a defined benefits plan for retirees and its value in attracting and retaining our current public service workforce. Elmore serves as a member of the House’s Pensions and Retirement Committee and also happens to be a public-school teacher. Meetings like these with legislators are just one of the ways NCRGEA advocates for state and local government retirees.

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

Division of Broadband and Digital Equity has developed a draft five-year plan outlining how the agency will invest BEAD funding across North Carolina.

June 26, 2023

Governor Cooper Announces North Carolina Will Receive More Than $1.5 Billion in Federal Funding to Expand High-Speed Internet Access Across the State

Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded North Carolina more than $1.5 billion to fund high-speed internet infrastructure under the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.

Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded North Carolina more than $1.5 billion to fund high-speed internet infrastructure under the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.

“State and federal partnerships are critical to helping us close the digital divide and we are grateful to the Biden-Harris administration for this historic investment to expand high-speed Internet access in North Carolina,” said Governor Cooper. “Through this program, we will continue to make tremendous progress in making sure every household and business in our state is connected.”

The N.C. Department of Information Technology’s (NCDIT’s) Division of Broadband and Digital Equity has developed a draft five-year plan outlining how the agency will invest BEAD funding across North Carolina. The draft plan has been posted online and is available for public comment via email to NCDITpartnerfeedback@nc.gov until Monday, July 17 at 5 p.m. The division will submit the five-year plan to NTIA by July 29 as part of the process for North Carolina to access its allocated BEAD funding.

“We continue to work tirelessly to achieve the best return on our investment as we allocate federal resources to address unserved and underserved locations across North Carolina,” said NCDIT Secretary and State Chief Information Officer Jim Weaver. “We appreciate the strong partnerships that have helped us identify needs throughout the state so that we can take strategic steps to reach every North Carolinian.”

The broadband division recently announced that its challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Map aided in surfacing 115,000 additional North Carolina homes and businesses that do not have access to high-speed internet, adding more new unserved locations to the map through this process than any other state. These additions increased North Carolina’s funding allocation from the BEAD program.

The BEAD program received funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet For All initiative. More information about the initiative and the state’s other Internet For All funding can be found on this fact sheet.

To learn more about the NCDIT Division of Broadband and Digital Equity and Governor Cooper’s plan to close the digital divide in North Carolina, please visit www.ncbroadband.gov.

Changing the General Assembly Takes Time and Patience: How You Can Help

NC Legislative Building
The General Assembly meets biennially and all members are elected for two-year terms. The House consists of 120 members and the Senate has 50 members. It meets in the North Carolina Legislative Building, shown here, located at 16 West Jones St., in Raleigh.

Congratulations! You are a member of the largest association of retired government professionals in the United States. Now more than a half century old, we were then, and are today, the primary voice and advocate for North Carolina’s local and state governmental retired public servants.

As you may well remember, when we founded in 1972, our country was headed into troublesome times. Gas prices and inflation were gearing up for history making highs, we were fiercely engaged in the Cold War, and societal unease was tense across the country. Yet we remained focused on our purpose: you.

Fast forward to today, and while the past may be prologue, our focus remains the same: you.

What does that mean for you? In addition to our life impacting benefits, we have a daily presence at the North Carolina General Assembly, boards of trustees overseeing our retirement systems, and other bodies relevant to retiree matters. Our bipartisan, four member lobbyist team and NCRGEA executive leadership work with elected and appointed officials, fighting to protect the quality of life that you rightfully earned.

As our purpose is you, you are what matters most to our elected officials. You are the constituent, the fellow church member, the neighbor our elected officials are charged to serve. You are also the women and men who are the girders of a safe, well educated, prosperous, and clean North Carolina. You kept our roads maintained, educated our children, put the bad guys away, helped people in perilous times, and made our environment safe. You are, truly, the backbone of what is today one of the most desirous states to live, work, and play.

With the NCRGEA, you have a family of almost 67,000 fellow retired public servants. We are mighty in scope and in size, and can have a unified, bellowing voice with our elected officials. We look forward to continuing to serve you and fight for your quality of life.

Our elected officials need to know you. Here is how you can better engage in the legislative process as a retiree advocate; click below to download or enlarge the infographic:

Lake Case Update: June 2023

June 15, 2023

NCRGEA continues its work to advance, promote, and protect the benefits, interests, and well-being of North Carolina’s retired state and local public servants in the Lake Case. Click the video at left to hear a report from ABC11 News in Raleigh.

As Executive Director Tim O’Connell explains in this video: “To take care of them in the retirement years, based upon a contractual promise, is being a good steward for North Carolina.”

NC House Includes 2% COLA for State Retirees in 2023 Biennium Budget

By Tim O’Connell, Executive Director of North Carolina Retired Governmental Employees’ Association | March 30, 2023

On behalf of our association’s close to 66,000 members, we want to thank the efforts of both the executive branch and our House legislative leadership for including a 2 percent recurring cost of living adjustment for state government retirees and retired educators. If fully approved, the recurring adjustment will be distributed one percent per biennium year. Government retirees are the unsung heroes of our North Carolina, building a state that remains prosperous, safe, clean, and desirable for families to lead healthy, high-quality lives.

Today, the State House of the North Carolina General Assembly released its anticipated budget, an almost $30 billion budget providing raises for active state government employees and educators and rainy day funds to protect against our challenging, unbridled current inflationary economic environment.

While we have made tremendous progress, we at the NCRGEA will continue to fight for these dedicated women and men, both our local and state government retirees and stay a resource for executive and legislative leadership in providing this most critical relief.  

Our elected officials recognized the plight of retirees and have also provided raises to help our future retirees have a better quality of life in retirement.

Letter to the Editor | State government retirees drowning in inflation

Tim O’Connell, Executive Director, North Carolina Retired Governmental Employees Association – March 9, 2023

More than 320,000 local and state government retirees are drowning in inflation. With a likely probability of another multi-billion-dollar surplus for the state, it’s time to do the right thing and provide inflation-fighting cost-of-living adjustments for these dedicated women and men.

The fact that everything costs more today is common knowledge. Over the past decade, individual purchasing power has declined by 29 percent. The basket of basic goods bought 10 years ago for $100 now costs $129. During this same period, cost-of-living adjustments totaled just 2 percent for state retirees and less than 1 percent for local government retirees.

This widening gap of lack of cost-of-living adjustments related to inflation hurts not only the retirees but the entire North Carolina economy. This is particularly true in North Carolina’s rural counties, where a higher percentage of retired public servants live compared to urban counties.

And yet retirees are good for the state’s economy. The National Institute of Retirement Security reports that in North Carolina, public pensioners support more than 49,477 jobs across all 100 counties and across a breadth of industries, from hospitality to healthcare to real estate. The value of this to the North Carolina economy is $8.1 billion a year and excludes the $1.2 billion this group pays in taxes to the state and federal government. The continued stagnation of cost-of-living adjustments will reduce this impact if not addressed.

While retirees remain grateful for the one-time bonuses the North Carolina General Assembly and Retirement System Trustees have provided over the past decade, such appreciated efforts will not abate the issue of short and long-term inflation. With the average retirement payment of approximately $1,650 monthly for retired public servants and the current 29 percent reduction in buying power adjusted for inflation, North Carolina has not seen this significant disparity in nearly 50 years.

Public sector retirees are forced to make hard decisions at the grocery store and at the pharmacy, and some struggle to maintain their own homes. Governmental retirees are our neighbors, friends, and parents. They educated our children, maintained our roads, cared for our loved ones, provided our families with clean drinking water, and were the first responders who put in long and often dangerous hours to keep our communities safe.

As we look at ways to bolster the resiliency of the North Carolina economy, serious consideration must be given to how it can be done in a way that provides dignity and quality of life to governmental retirees. As our legislators and elected officials make decisions in what is projected as another year of surplus revenues, they cannot forget our retired public servants.