Greetings Members!

I hope everyone will be able to spend some quality time with loved ones this holiday season. 

As I reflect on this past year, I believe ORTA has laid the foundation for an optimistic future for our organization. When ORTA changed our name to the Ohio Retirement for Teachers Association, we were able to keep our 76 year old acronym, ORTA, and update our logo.  In an executive council meeting, it was noted that our old logo with the flame over the "O" was also being used by heating companies driving around in Ohio. We replaced the red flame with a mortarboard.  The name change was made to let STRS members know that ORTA wasn't trying to exclude active teachers. ORTA understands that a healthy pension system benefits all members both active and retired. 

Planning for the future, ORTA leadership decided to completely revamp our website and social media pages. The website has been receiving high praise and is attracting a lot of traffic. For example,  this November there were  9,253 hits. That's a lot for one month!  Compare this to the entire 2022 calendar year, when we had a grand total of 1,781 hits.  Read about the ORTA defense fund, where you can make donations to support ORTA's mission statement. You'll also find Member benefits available though AMBA and Passport that likely you never knew existed.  ORTA now also offers a 3-year  membership for only $75. Also new, through ORTA's  partnership with AMBA,  a classroom teacher, or someone who goes back into the classroom as a substitute, can now obtain $500,000 of classroom liability for only $75 a year. But the best part of the website is the blog, that keeps you up to date with news about your pension system.   

On the political side, ORTA has been seeking out and successfully working with other reform minded groups to elect Board Members to serve as strong fiduciaries. The last five candidates we supported have been elected to seats on the STRS board.  On the legislative front, just this month, a piece of legislation initiated by ORTA, House Bill 78, passed the House and seems on track to become an Ohio code.  House Bill 78 allows a rehired retiree who returned back to work for a school district the opportunity to run for a Retired Board seat.  Previously, a rehired retiree was denied this opportunity under Ohio's codes.  Representatives William Seitz (R) and Joseph Miller(D) sponsored this legislation.  

Here is another piece of legislation ORTA has initiated, which should be of great interest to all retirees living in Ohio.  While the legislation has not been introduced, it has passed review by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission and forwarded for the next step. The context of the legislation would provide an Ohio personal income tax exemption for all members drawing a pension from one of Ohio's five pension systems.  The exemption would be capped to match the Social Security maximum tax exemption which is roughly $42,000. So, if your pension is under $42,000, then 100% of your STRS pension would be tax free. Again, this legislation is in its early stage but I feel confident it will have the support because Social Security pensions are tax exempt in Ohio. ORTA is working with Representative William (Bill) Seitz on this legislation.

Lastly, but importantly, you are likely hearing some buzz that the nearly 40 year old stagnant Employers Contribution needs to be raised. Here are my thoughts. It absolutely needs to happen.  The reasoning is simple. The mess we are currently experiencing, such as teachers having to work longer by as much as 5 years, or until they hit age 65 for a full formula retirement, is too extreme. This has happened because the Employers Contribution has been stagnant since 1984. Ohio's Employer Contribution lags the other non Social-Security state by roughly 8%.  Basically, when it comes to public pension systems, our teachers contribute the most while their employers contribute the least. This is why Ohio teachers have to work longer while they pay more. The stagnant Employers Contribution is also why teachers retire without any inflation protection. Ohio retirees know this better than anyone. 

Please know that the proposal, which has yet to be drafted as legislation, would increase the Employer Contribution from 14% to 18% over an eight year period. This phase- in would be doable for school districts. If this legislation were to be passed, the STRS auditors would be able to work the designated monies into their assumptions. In doing so, our Trustees would have more wiggle room to restore lost benefits. For instance, if older teachers are able to retire earlier then this would free up monies for hiring younger teachers at a savings for the district. The additional revenue would also open the door for possible inflation protection. 

Finally, after years of lobbying STRS that they needed to lobby the legislature for an Employer Contribution (ORTA has been bringing this up at Board meetings for at least 5 years), STRS has come around.  STRS has drafted a letter and is asking ORTA and other stakeholders such as OFT, AAUP and OEA, for a letter of support for the Employer Contribution increase.  ORTA has submitted a letter. ORTA believes that this is a missing piece of the puzzle to restore lost benefits along with more transparent investments.  As always, my best to all of you.

Greetings ORTA Members!

As another year comes to a close with the STRS pension system continuing down its path of denying its members promised benefits and continuing to punish active educators, I remain optimistic that the efforts of ORTA and other groups (STRS Members Only Forum and STRS Watchdogs) are having a positive impact on reforming our pension system. It is easy to become bitter and frustrated that the system has treated its members so poorly for so many years, but we can see change on the horizon.

Looking back to 2017, the STRS board had two lone voices challenging the loss of promised COLAs for retirees, and the increases in contributions and service requirements for actives. One voice was that of Yoel Mayerfeld, appointed by Ohio’s treasurer. As soon as Ohio’s current treasurer (Sprague) was elected Mr. Mayerfeld was replaced by a status quo member weakening the calls for reform. The other voice was Wade Steen, the governor’s appointee. Over the last several years Wade’s voice calling for reform was strengthened by the addition of STRS board members Rudy Fichtenbaum, Jullie Sellers, Liz Jones, Steve Foreman, and Pat Davidson. Things were looking positive for the chance at real reforms to fix the STRS pension system. Then Governor DeWine moved to replace Mr. Steen with a person dedicated to the continued path of mismanagement of our pension system (Bishop). I am at a loss as to why DeWine would take such an action. I can only speculate that, somewhere in this move is the hope by DeWine that this will assist in his plan to destroy public education in Ohio. His actions are having a devastating effect on Ohio’s system of public education. Actions such as Vouchers for All that divert public dollars to private education; the elimination of Ohio’s independent Department of Education; and now his action to destroy our pension system, making teaching in Ohio a less desirable career.

However, with five of eleven STRS board members committed to reforming STRS the members of STRS (both active and retired) have a chance to elect an additional reform candidate this spring. ORTA is committed to assisting any candidate committed to reforming our pension system win this spring’s election.

To that end ORTA will take the following actions:

1. ORTA will assist candidates collect signatures on petitions to have their name on the ballot.

2. ORTA will interview candidates and ‘endorse’ any candidate that the endorsement committee recommends.

I have been notified by one candidate that she is interested in running for the STRS board seat. Michele Flanigan from northeast Ohio is interested in serving as a STRS trustee. The seat up for election this spring is an ‘active seat’ meaning that retirees are not eligible to vote in this election. Retirees, however, can use their influence with active educators to support candidates. ORTA hopes to conduct its endorsement process by early to mid-January. For now, ORTA is helping candidates collect signatures to have candidate’s names placed on the ballot. You can print a petition and collect signatures using the form included in this newsletter. We ask that you help Michelle collect the required signatures from your active teacher friends. You can collect the signatures and send them to:

ORTA

250 E. Wilson Bridge Rd.

Suite 140

Worthington, OH. 43085

From time to time, I am asked questions that are directed at getting to the bottom of what reforms ORTA would support at STRS. Listed below are reforms of STRS ORTA is working for:

1. Increase transparency – STRS is not transparent. Despite accepting awards from some of their paid consultants or from other corrupt politicians, STRS remains opaque. Some examples of this lack of transparency include:
   
   a. Using gross of fees returns when calculating bonus awards for its investment staff
   b. Not sharing information regarding the fees charged or the expenses associated with over 20% of its investment portfolio ($20,000,000,000)
   c. Even in its recent public relations campaign to host town hall meetings STRS carefully screens its list of participants
    

2. Switch to passive investment strategies - Moving from active management to passive management in its investment strategy. STRS ‘losses to the market’ every year. The Auditor of State confirmed this in his investigation of STRS that was prompted by the grass roots funded forensic audit of STRS. AOS stated that since 2009 STRS investors lost $12 billion to a portfolio that included the same asset classes as STRS but was passively managed.
   
   Remember, a passive management strategy would not include lavish unearned bonus payments to investors that do worse than passively managed portfolios.
    

3. Provide a retirement that is commensurate with what people pay - Increase the employer contribution rate paid by employers of Ohio’s teachers. Currently, Ohio has the lowest employer contribution rate of public retirement systems and the second highest individual contribution rate. This means that teachers in Ohio pay the second highest rate in the country, their employers pay the lowest rate in the country, and we get less value than anyone in the country. In fact, STRS is the only public pension in the country whose participants receive less in value than what they are paying in contributions.

There are other reforms that would strengthen STRS that could be discussed, however with these reforms everyone associated with STRS would be far better off. That is why it is so important to elect reform minded candidates as STRS board members. The current majority of STRS board members are committed to the current status quo of paying more, working longer, and receiving less in benefits than what was promised.

One final note is an update on the Wade Steen situation. As you already know, Wade Steen served one complete term on the STRS board as an appointee of Governor Kasich and was reappointed by DeWine.

After the election of May 2023 results were known by STRS and it became clear that the majority of the STRS board were reform minded, DeWine used his power to do what he has always done… hurt teachers and educators. This time he removed a powerful voice advocating for educators in Ohio (Wade Steen) from the pension board and replaced him with a wealthy donor. This move insured that the money flowing from our pension through Wall St. to the politicians in Ohio would continue to flow. A majority reform board would stop the corruption.

Mr. Steen thinks, and I agree, that his removal by the governor is illegal. We are of the opinion, and the language in the Revised Code is clear, that Mr. Steen does not ‘serve at the pleasure of the governor’. Mr. Steen filed suit that his removal violates the law and has asked to be reseated on the STRS board.

The defendants have stalled this challenge rather effectively; however, it appears that the legal maneuvers are at an end and the judge will rule. ORTA has assisted Mr. Steen in his legal challenge against DeWine. To date ORTA has collected approximately $45,000 to assist Wade in this battle. Mr. Steen and the ORTA leaders would like to thank everyone that has donated to this worthy cause. As former educators we all know that the deck is stacked against us. We are used to fighting uphill battles.

This battle is no different. We are battling the most powerful political man in Ohio; whose friends (at least those that are not in jail, yet) have more money than we can imagine. Win or lose, I am proud to be a retired educator!

Finally, I am happy to announce that Jim Montaquila of Portage Co. RTA is the ORTA Member of the month! Look for a separate communication later this month on Jim.

READY TO RENEW?