CTA is continuing its effort to require the state to pay back $500 million it borrowed from the State Teachers' Retirement System over the objections of CTA and STRS.
CTA is sponsoring AB 55 by Assembly Member Gene Mullin, which would require the state to restore funding to the Supplemental Benefits Maintenance Account (SBMA) dedicated to shoring up the purchasing power of pensions. As a fiscal bill, AB 55 will require a two-thirds vote.
A similar CTA bill passed the Assembly 80-0, but was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee and no vote was ever taken.
The new bill is co-sponsored by the STRS Board. It requires the payments to be made over time with interest, rather than all in one year.
The SBMA fund provides some 62,000 pensioners with as much as 40 percent of their pension. No retiree receives extra money until inflation has eroded 20 percent of their pension's buying power.
"This funding is vested by law and must be paid," says Mullin, a retired educator. "It's the right thing to do."
