MEA-MFT Retired Program

• Protecting your retirement
• Helping you plan for a great retirement
• Keeping you on top of issues

• In the 1983 Montana Legislature, MEA-MFt passed a bill to grant teachers 25-year retirement without penalty.
• In 1983, the state legislature also adopted our bill to grant up to four years creditable service to Vietnam veterans.
• In 1985, MEA-MFT joined with other public unions and retiree organizations to successfully pass legislation permitting public employees to contribute to their retirement systems in pretax dollars, so-called "pick-up-and-pay."
• By the early 1990s, MEA-MFT supported adoption and payment of Teachers Retirement System (TRS) and Public Employees (PERS) "post retirement benefit adjustments" (PRBAs) to retirees from a portion of realized "excess earnings" (earnings income above of the targeted +8% annualized amount) generated by TRS and PERS pension fund investments.
• In 1993, MEA/-MFT helped establish the Public Employee Pension Security Coalition (PEPSCO) and successfully passed a legislative referendum asking for a constitutional amendment to protect all public employee retirement assets from legislative misappropriation. In 1994, we promoted this referendum (then known as CA-25 or the "Pension Security Act"). Through our efforts, 75% of the Montana electorate approved the amendment. It is now part of our state's constitution.
• In 1991, MEA-MFT introduced the first bill to provide for a guaranteed annual benefit adjustment, ("GABA") in public employee retirement. And ever since, we have been hard at work on this issue in every regular and special legislative session of the 1990s.
• MEA-MFT was a major player in the successful 1997 GABA legislation that granted retirees in the Public Employees Retirement System a modest annual benefit increase (+1.5% GABA beginning 3 years following retirement).
• Also in the 1997 Legislature, MEA-MFT passed legislation assuring teacher representation on the TRS Board. MEA-MFT members Virginia Egli of Glendive, Jima Severson of Havre, and Emily Bogut of Evergreen are now members of the TRS Board.
• During the 1999 Legislature, following a decade of effort, MEA-MFT won overwhelming legislative approval of a GABA for TRS members. The 1999 session also adopted amendments guaranteeing continued IRS "qualified plan" status for TRS and providing tax deferral on termination pay applied to TRS.
• For decades, MEA-MFT has successfully opposed bad proposals to abandon defined benefit pension programs or to underfund public retirement systems. MEA-MFT's role in defending pension governance and financing principles is played out at both the state level and at local collective bargaining tables. Locally, MEA-MFT frequently negotiates early retirement incentive plans (ERIPs) or addresses other post-retirement benefits issues.
• For years, MEA-MFT has been recognized as the most active advocacy organization before the TRS Board, even while we constantly monitor TRS rule-making procedures and interim legislative Committee on Public Employee Retirement Systems (CPERS) meeting discussions.