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SAA Opposes “Anti-Double Dipping” Bills
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | November 18, 2011
SAA Director of Government Relations John Forester testified in opposition to Assembly Bills 318 and 352 (so-called “anti-double dipping” bills) at a public hearing before the Assembly Committee on Insurance yesterday.
During his testimony, Forester made several points in addition to those contained in his prepared testimony, including:
- This legislation will have quite an impact on CESAs’ ability to continue providing cost-effective services to Wisconsin school districts. CESAs were designed, at least in part, to provide cost-effective services to school districts that do not have the capacity to provide these services themselves. The biggest service area for most CESAs is special education. CESAs employ many highly qualified retired educators that do a great job providing high quality, cost-effective services to school districts.
- My friends in the private sector say that in order to achieve optimum efficiency and productivity in any organization you need to have your incentives pointed in the right direction. These bills create incentives for retired teachers and administrators to take their annuity and 1) go to work in the private sector, or 2) take their experience and abilities to Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, or any other state. To lose this type of experience and expertise to another state would be a shame.
- During today’s hearing, we heard lots of assertions by proponents of this legislation that the current practice of hiring retirees is harming the Wisconsin Retirement Fund. And we are all concerned about the solvency of the system. But, I heard nothing in the Department of Employee Trust Funds’ testimony today to indicate definitively that those assertions are indeed fact. In fact, it seems the only way to determine that definitively is by conducting an actuarial study. The SAA would support the completion of such a study to inform this policy development process.
The SAA will closely monitor these bills and inform the SAA membership of any significant developments.
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