NC Supreme Court Ruling On State Retirees’ Health Insurance Benefits: NCRGEA Releases Statement

Tracie Eubank on March 12, 2022

“We are extremely pleased with the decision filed by the North Carolina Supreme Court today holding that eligible State employees have a vested right in a noncontributory health plan for life.  This Association has worked on this case to support retirees’ rights for almost 10 years.”

“As the Court stated, ‘These employees reasonably relied on the promise of this benefit in choosing to accept employment with the State.  They are entitled to the benefit of their bargain, which includes eligibility to enroll in a premium-free plan offering the same or greater coverage value as the one available to them when their rights vested.’”

“This decision has been a long time in coming.  We are grateful to the attorneys, led by Christopher Whelchel and Michael Carpenter at  the Gray Layton Kersh firm in Gastonia, with great assistance from attorneys Sam McGee and Gary Jackson, who have worked so hard for so long to protect retirees’ rights.  We are also grateful to AARP and the North Carolina Association of Educators for their support.”

“We agree with the Court’s determination that this dispute raises issues of profound importance to the hundreds of thousands of dedicated public employees who devoted their lives to serving their fellow North Carolinians, often for far less immediate remuneration than would have been available to them in the private sector.”

The Lake Case court decision may be viewed on the North Carolina Judicial Branch website. 

Congrats, Sherry Beck of District 3!

Craig Campbell on February 24, 2022

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Winner of NCRGEA Trivia January 2022~

Sherry Gerald Beck is the winner of the January 2022 Trivia game.   She lives in Lexington, NC, located in District 3.  Sherry is married to David Beck and has two grown children, a daughter and son-in-law and 2 grandchildren.

Sherry retired in 2013 from South Davidson Middle School where she served as assistant principal.  She likes the fact that NCRGEA keeps retirees up to date on the legislature, promoting and protecting our benefits and the great work of our lobbyists.

Sherry stated that the best thing about retirement is staying active. She and her husband are members of the Thomasville Senior Club and participate in several groups who entertain at Senior Centers.  She was crowned Ms. Senior Davidson County in 2016.  She performs with the “Sassyfrazz” and “Seniors Spreading Sunshine” that perform for seniors throughout many counties. She is learning to clog, belly dance, sing, backup dance and how to play the ukulele.

Sherry’s advice to everyone regarding COVID is to treat this with seriousness.  She further advised that we should all go out and be active wherever possible while following CDC guidelines. She said, “Life should continue and not stand still!”

Sherry stated, “I am so excited about being the winner of the trivia game.   Everyone should complete trivia for a chance to win.  I am pleased to be a member of NCRGEA and have people concerned about my welfare.”  Congratulations Sherry Beck!!

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Local Government Retirees to See a Spending Boost in 2022

Craig Campbell on February 2, 2022

Legislative Update

North Carolina’s local government retirees will receive a long overdue boost in their annual pensions. In late January the Local Governmental Employees’ Retirement Board, which governs the state’s local government pension system, approved an across-the-board 2 percent bonus for local government retirees.

There are more than 77,000 local government retirees in North Carolina who will receive the bonus in October 2022, as pursuant to state law. While local government retirees will receive their bonus, more than 234,000 state government retirees received a similar 2 percent bonus in their December 2021 checks, with another 3 percent bonus also coming in October 2022.

North Carolina Retired Governmental Employees’ Association (NCRGEA) represents both state and local government retirees and worked with state legislators, the State Treasurer, Governor’s office and both local and state retirement system boards to help insure that retired public servants would see a pension boost. NCRGEA Board of Directors President Vann Langston said he hopes the treasurer’s support of the 2022 bonus is only the beginning of future efforts to abate lost pension values for both local and state retirees.

“Retired public servants have suffered long enough,” Langston said. “Local government retirees have suffered the most, being overlooked for nearly a decade. Our association would like to see this as the beginning to restore retiree pension values to maintain quality of life,” Langston explained.

Normally, the local government pension system will only provide a cost-of-living adjustment through additional contributions from local governments. Langston explained that NCRGEA worked with the treasurer and retirement system trustees to have the $59 million bonus provided by investment returns rather than increased contributions by local governments.

“This bonus will be provided without placing additional hardships on our local governments,” Langston pointed out.

Historically, the state provided annual cost of living adjustments for both state and local retirees. However, as the Great Recession of 2009 crippled investment returns and lawmakers scrambled to cover the state’s bottom line, cost of living adjustments became few and far between. A decade’s long shift has occurred since, where lawmakers and other decision makers are now more inclined to provide one-time bonuses rather than recurring adjustments.

NCRGEA, with over 66,000 members, is the largest governmental retiree association in the United States. There are over 320,000 state and local government retirees and NCRGEA works for all of them.

Langston noted it was a team effort to help NCRGEA secure the bonus for local government retirees. He also pointed to efforts by the North Carolina League of Municipalities and the North Carolina City and County Management Association as key to successfully securing the bonus.

North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell said the state must take a long view to make sure government retirees will have healthy retirement benefits for future generations.

“We are blessed to have had sufficient market returns to provide this benefit increase to our local retirees, in a fiscally responsible manner,” Folwell said. “Our job is to keep the retirement system solvent for this and the next generation of those who teach, protect, and serve.”

Stay tuned!

Vann Langston
NCRGEA Board Director

New Website for NCRGEA!

Craig Campbell on January 6, 2022

Happy 2022! We have a new website and we are putting on the finishing touches. Please contact MarkIII for benefit questions at 833.444.5220, or our office at 919.834.4652 if you have any enrollment needs. We appreciate your patience as we finalize construction.

NCRGEA TRIVIA!

NCRGEA Staff on January 4, 2022

WINNERS: At the end of the 30-day contest period, one winner will be chosen from all entries. Your prize will be mailed to you, so be sure we have your correct address by completing all the information on the Trivia form.

PRIZE: All may play Trivia but only members of NCRGEA will be eligible to win the cash prize.

CLICK HERE to play Trivia!

NCRGEA Government Relations Update #21-28

NCRGEA Staff on August 25, 2021

Legislators are conferencing this week, meeting behind closed doors to hammer out a compromised budget between the House and the Senate.

  • Right now, House legislators have a 2 percent bonus for state retirees in its budget.
  • Right now, House Bill 469—authorizing a 2 percent bonus for local government retirees, remains stuck in the House Pensions Committee.
  • Right now, it’s time to make your voice heard.

Visit House & Senate Conferees for S 105 – Appropriations Act 2021-2023 to find contact information for the budget conferees, including email and phone. Tell the budget conferees and your legislators that you and all retired public servants need an inflation abating cost of living adjustment.

As always, thank you for the many contributions you gave to make our communities and state safe, prosperous, and healthy. We are proud to serve you and our whole retiree family.

Supreme Court to Hear Lake Case October 4, 2021

After several procedural motions from both sides and orders from the Supreme Court, that Court eventually issued an order last week that the case would be heard by the Court at oral argument. On Friday, the Court set the case to be heard at oral argument on Monday October 4 at 3:00 PM in the Supreme Court at 2 East Morgan Street in Raleigh.

The Court will consider the retirees’ argument that the Court of Appeals was incorrect in reversing the Superior Court’s ruling in favor of the retirees. The arguments can be viewed on October 4th at 3:00 pm at http://govu.us/supreme-court-of-nc-oral-arguments

Here is the history of the Lake, et al. v State Health Plan, et al. to put the latest developments in context. In 2011, the General Assembly amended the State Health Plan to require retirees to contribute a premium to receive benefits under the 80/20 plan. Believing that the State had promised 80/20 benefits in a contractual fashion, over 30 retirees sued the State Health Plan and others in 2012 in Superior Court in Gaston
County. The Superior Court Judge certified the case as a class action and ruled in 2017 that the retirees were entitled to win the case. The Judge’s order provided that damages would be determined after receiving expert testimony.

The State appealed the trial court’s order to the Court of Appeals. In an opinion issued in 2019, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the trial court had erred and ordered the case back to Superior Court to be dismissed. Plaintiff retirees petitioned the Supreme Court to grant discretionary review of the Court of Appeals decision.

Stay Tuned!!
Richard Rogers
NCRGEA Executive Director

NCRGEA Government Relations Update #21-26

NCRGEA Staff on August 10, 2021

We are very thankful to the membership of the N.C. House of Representatives, who have listened to our concerns about the failure of the State’s public pensions to keep up with inflation, and the hardship this has inflicted on our membership.

The two percent bonus included in the prospective House budget will help retired government employees as they try to recover financially from the ongoing COVID-19 situation and the recent spike in inflation nationally.

However, the two percent bonus, as currently drafted in the budget, does not bring sustainable relief as a recurring cost of living adjustment would.  As such, this is only a temporary panacea for a greater problem.  Retired governmental employees have received very little in the way of a cost-of-living adjustment since the financial crisis of 13 years ago.  Our pensions had already lost roughly 20 percent of their purchasing power even before COVID and the current inflation struck.

As we have pointed out in the past, retirees are not asking for a handout from the government.  In their working years, most of them eschewed more lucrative private-sector work in favor of employment with government agencies due to the promise of a secure retirement.  North Carolina has a moral obligation to these hundreds of thousands of former governmental employees who helped build this state.

What is needed is a permanent and recurring COLA, similar to what was offered by the General Assembly prior to 2008. This is the only way in which our retirees’ pension values can be stabilized and the long-term financial security they were promised in their working years, assured.

While thankful, we sincerely hope that this issue will be revisited by the legislature as the budget process continues.

Stay Tuned!

 

Richard Rogers

NCRGEA Executive Director