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Nov 2010
Dear Task Force Member
It’s time for another update on our progress with the legislation for extending the Emory, Bailey, Patton settlement. As you know the 4th Branch did an economic analysis of what the Federal, State, Local and Military retiree brings to the State of North Carolina. The results of that study showed that for every $1.00 the state gives us in tax benefits we give them $2.50 in return. The study shows that we are an asset and not a liability to North Carolina.
We had limited success in the legislature with our efforts this year but the first effort took over 10 years to come to fruition and we will continue our efforts on behalf of all federal /military retirees.
You will recall again “The purpose of this organization shall be to further the long term interests of all military and civilian federal retirees and their beneficiaries, residing in NC; to communicate with and advise them or their rights and obligations; to use such lawful efforts including legislative activities as needed to accomplish this purpose in a nonpartisan manner”.
Unfortunately for us the financial situation in the State has left us in a difficult predicament. Our lobbyist met with several key people in the House, Senate and also the governors office and had a tentative approval for us to make a presentation to the 2009 Revenue Laws committee. When they returned for the short session of the legislature the finances were in such bad shape that they did not invite us to appear before the committee. According to Ken Melton, our lobbyist, most of the people on the committee thought that we had a good case but the “timing was not very good for the economic environment to send this to the house” and that it would be voted down. We decided to not press the issue but wait until another day/another session of the legislature.
This leads to another issue, some of the data in the economic analysis has to be updated. The 4th Branch has contracted with Dr Hedrick again for him to update the study. When he finishes we have to update our material and have it ready when the legislature returns in January. We have house/senate members lined up to introduce our bills and some cosponsors as well.
We continue to work closely with the 4th branch and MOAA Several of our board members are on the legislative committee of the 4th Branch. Meetings are already planned for after the elections to put in place new strategies for the upcoming session and we want to be ready when that session starts in January. We know that the State’s budget doesn’t look very good for next year but we will continue our efforts with our usual optimism.
You might be interested in knowing why we as federal/military, state and local retirees bring more to the table than the state gives us in return, here are just four reasons:
- ENHANCING the local property tax base and local and state sales tax.
- INCREASING local capital and community jobs, stimulating and stabilizing the economy.
- INCREASING voluntary services in the community (over100 million $ in volunteer hours)
- PROVIDING environmentally friendly growth.(we protect the environment-no new infrastructure is required when a federal retiree moves into NC)
Now that all that has been said we did a lot of work in 2009-2010 but to be honest with all of you we did not accomplish our goal of extending the Bailey, Emory, Patton to all Federal, State, Local and Military retirees. We did get our points across to the finance committees, the governor’s office, some members of the house and senate and from that standpoint we were successful.
We continue to need your support, our numbers are getting smaller, simply because of age. This group started over 20 years ago and the people that started this effort were already retired then. I again want to thank them for their efforts back then and we will continue their efforts for the next generation. We need your help in contacting your state representatives and senators. The grass roots effort still goes a long way with most politicians. With having to update our study and our new contract with our lobbyist we will have additional expenditures. I understand these are tough economic times, that’s why we really need your continued support.
I get many letters or notes from our members thanking us for what we are doing and I contact some of them and tell them how much we appreciate the support and effort that they have given thru the years and listen to some of their stories. It is fascinating to me to hear some of them, World war II veterans wanting us to keep up our efforts. I assure them all that we will do that.
Thanks for all of your support thru the years, I wish I could tell each one of you that in person, it as an amazing group of people that made a commitment and stuck with that commitment thru thick and thin over all these years and still have a passion for their fellow man and “DOING THE RIGHT THING”. More to follow in the coming months.
Paul E Sams
Director, Federal Retiree Task Force
PS: If your retirement benefits are $1,000.00 a month you get an additional $70.00 a month or $840.00 a year in tax relief thanks to the Federal Retiree Task Force.
Mail all Contributions to:
Federal Retiree Task Force
86 Pine Lake Drive
Whispering Pines NC 28327
PERSISTENT: EXISTING FOR A LONG OR LONGER THAN USUAL TIME OR CONTINUOUSLY
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