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WEAC member Arlene Braden of East Troy and Wisconsin Federation of Teachers member Diane Jetzer of Madison testified January 24 in favor of a bill that would add a school district support staff member and a technical college support staff member to the State Employee Trust Funds Board.
Thank you, co-chairs and committee members for allowing me to testify today in support of Senate Bill 97.
I am Arlene Braden, school secretary/registrar at East Troy High School. I am a member of the Wisconsin Education Association Council.
I am here to urge you to support Senate Bill 97: adding a K-12 school district support staff member and a Technical College support staff member to the Employee Trust Funds Board, where we are currently unrepresented.
The ETF Board has no school support staff representation and it shows. WEAC and WFT spent over four years lobbying so that we would be placed on the school year rather than the calendar year for pension calculations. Obviously we work in schools. Our members tend to be hired at the start of a school year and retire at the end of a school year. But prior to the passage of the bills placing us on the school year every K-12 and WTCS support staff participant lost an average of 2% of what our pensions would have been had we been appropriately placed from the beginning. We need representation on the ETF board and urge you to support SB97.
Thank you, co-chairs and committee members for allowing me to testify today in support of Senate Bill 97.
I am Diane Jetzer, President of the support staff union at Madison Area Technical college, which is affiliated with the Wisconsin Federation of Teachers.
I am here to urge you to support Senate Bill 97: adding a Technical College support staff member and a K-12 school district support staff member to the Employee Trust Funds Board, where we are currently unrepresented.
You have no idea how confusing it is to be a support staff member of the Wisconsin Retirement System. We work side by side with faculty and we are told that for the same pay and the same years of service we receive the same pension benefits; but our annual statements don't say that.
If a support staff member and a teacher have both worked 20 years at MATC, the teacher's statement shows 20 years of service, while the support staffer's statement will show 15 years. We are told that another number in the calculation, which doesn't appear on our annual statement, straightens it all out.
Can you imagine if we were represented on the ETF Board that this situation would continue to exist? We deserve representation on this important board that affects our pensions, but doesn't reflect a concern for our needs.
The ETF Board sets policy affecting K-12 and WTCS support staff, yet support staff are not represented on the ETF Board. A number of laws penalize support staff. They need their own advocates on the ETF Board. There are thousands of technical college and school district support staff in the Wisconsin Retirement System. They are entitled to representation on the ETF Board.
The State of Wisconsin Employee Trust Funds (ETF) Board is responsible for state policy on public employee retirement, health insurance and disability programs. Currently, 12 members serve on this board, none of whom represent educational support personnel.
The ETF Board sets policy for the Department of Employee Trust Funds (ETF); appoints the ETF secretary; approves tables used for computing benefits, contribution rates and actuarial assumptions; authorizes all annuities except for disability; approves or rejects ETF administrative rules; and generally oversees the benefit programs, except group insurance and deferred compensation.
Posted February 4, 2000