Understanding State and Federal Advocacy for Your Retirement

BY MONTY EXTER ATPE Governmental Relations Director

January brought the start of a new legislative session, here in Texas and in Washington, D.C. Both the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress play a role in shaping your retirement as a Texas educator. Understanding the basic policy issues that impact your Teacher Retirement System (TRS) of Texas annuity and Social Security is the first step to effectively advocating for greater retirement security. This includes understanding provisions that limit potential benefits, who controls retirement issues, and that teacher retirement issues are—as a whole—inherently political.

In the simplest terms, TRS pensions can be broken down into three factors: benefits, contributions, and investments. Of the three, the Texas Legislature controls two: the benefits formula and contributions by employers and employees. TRS manages the third—investment of the pension fund. In this case, your benefit is your monthly retirement check, and the formula that determines your benefit is 100% governed by the Legislature—not by TRS. Lawmakers decide what will be your multiplier (a percentage used in calculation of your monthly benefit amount), when you can start receiving retirement benefits, whether you are subject to an early retirement penalty, and whether you will get a cost-ofliving adjustment (COLA) or 13th check.

Unlike most educators around the country who pay into both a government-funded pension and Social Security, most Texas educators do not pay into Social Security while working in TRS-covered positions. That means any Social Security payments most Texas educators do receive—either of their own from a different job or their spousal Social Security benefits—are subject to a reduction due to either the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) or the Government Pension Offset (GPO). The WEP reduces a retiree’s own Social Security, whereas the GPO reduces the amount of spousal Social Security to which a retiree would otherwise be entitled. You can learn more about the details of the WEP and the GPO at TeachtheVote.org/retirement

ATPE supports increasing educators’ retirement income through both TRS at the state level and Social Security at the federal level. We support increasing TRS benefits through passage of a 13th check (an extra one-time payment beyond the regular 12 monthly payments), a COLA, or an increase in the multiplier. We support increasing educators’ access to Social Security by repealing— or, at least in the short term, reforming—the WEP and/or GPO.

Although ATPE supports increasing both state and federal retirement benefits, there are some differences to understand between the two programs. Most educators get decidedly more income from their TRS pension, so protecting and increasing TRS pensions is likely to provide more income to retirees.

Additionally, the Texas Legislature has a pretty good recent track record of passing positive legislation when it comes to the TRS pension, whether increasing the fund’s contribution rate, which facilitates higher benefit payments, or providing retirees with 13th checks. In contrast, neither political party has been able to pass federal legislation to repeal—or even reform—the WEP or GPO in more than 40 years. This might be because the WEP and GPO do not directly impact retired educators in most other states, so their federal legislators do not have the same vested interest as Texans do in repealing the law.

While increasing TRS retirement benefits and repealing the WEP/GPO are both very expensive propositions, a critical difference is the TRS pension is already actuarially sound (meaning it has enough assets to pay out its promised benefits), but the Social Security trust fund is not. It would be cheaper to increase state benefits without harming the TRS pension fund’s health than to repeal the WEP and GPO without hurting the Social Security pension fund.

The good news is that ATPE has made it easy for you to advocate for either a TRS COLA or repealing the WEP. Members have access to ATPE’s Advocacy Central, where you can reach your state or federal elected officials in just a few simple clicks. And, of course, ATPE’s lobby team in Austin and in Washington, D.C. will continue to advocate for these and all priorities ATPE members have adopted through the ATPE Legislative Program.