The State Retirees Association of South Carolina has a single purpose and that is to protect and maintain the pension and health benefits we were promised when we first began working in the public sector. I am sure we all remember that day when we were offered a job and were told that if you work for the state, the county or city, or if you began your career as a teacher, you are never going to get rich, but you will get a guaranteed pension and good health insurance. So, we signed on the dotted line and began our careers serving the people, the families, and the children of South Carolina. We fulfilled our obligations and now we ask, in fact we insist, that South Carolina fulfill its obligation to us. 

Unfortunately, over the years the very word pension has taken on a negative connotation. Most politicians no longer consider a pension that pays out defined benefits as a promise made to thousands of public servants who worked for below private sector wages, but rather as a financial liability. This liability, or as you will often hear it referred to as an "unfunded liability", has captured the attention of legislators for over a decade. Something must be done they said and blue-ribbon committees in both the House and the Senate went to work looking for solutions. Of course, the easiest way to reduce a liability is to reduce spending also known as benefits. The State Retirees Association has been there every step of the encouraging, cajoling, and sometimes arguing, we did our job, now it's time for you to do yours and not at our expense.

With the help of our members, we have been able to protect our pension and health benefits and probably just as importantly, ensured the organizations entrusted with managing our benefits and investing our trust fund dollars do so solely in our best interest. We have fought to keep politics out of investing and fought to keep lobbyists for Medicare Advantage companies out of our health care. We have been successful in ensuring that we have representatives on both the Public Employee Benefit Authority (PEBA) and the Retirement Systems Investment Commission (RSIC).

Our Retirement Association representatives have been at the table working hand in hand with legislators as these pieces of legislation were developed. The relationship between the leadership of the Association and members of the General Assembly guarantees that while we may not see eye to eye., we are respected because we work WITH the General Assembly. We help hone solutions to problems. Listed below is a link a PEBA website page which explains in more detail the legal and organizational changes that have been made in an effort to protect what we were promised.   

https://www.peba.sc.gov/sites/default/files/pension_reform.pdf