RH Jones: An April '07 Massive STRS Retiree Gathering in Columbus?

From RH Jones, September 28, 2006

Subject: An April '07 Massive STRS Retiree Gathering in Columbus?

To all:

The SummitCRTA held their board meeting yesterday, 09/27/06. Dr. Fluke indicated that: "Without the employer/employee increase legislation passing, down the road in the year 2020, the STRS HC/Rx will expire. And at that time Ohio can expect that thousands of us will be forced into the Ohio Medicaid HC/Rx system. Also, an alternative would be for the legislature to pass an Ad Hoc increase in the retiree base so that we can pay for HC/Rx."

He also stated that: "There is a strong movement to have a massive busing of retirees to Columbus, next April, for a "Kickoff" of a campaign to pressure the elected Ohio government officials to pass the employer/employee increase for HC/Rx legislation."

Fluke also gave credit to Sondra Stratton for "bird-dogging" the OH Ethics CMTE. Thank you Sondra!

The SummitCRTA General Luncheon Meeting will be held on 11/06/06. And the next SummitCRTA Bd. meets 01/09/06. At that time their will be a report on membership numbers.

Note:

As a member of Dr. Fluke's Legislative CMTE, my thoughts on the meeting is that too much time and money has been wasted on the Honors Account and the Scholarship CMTE reports. Honors & Scholarship should be done away with, and the money transferred to an account to provide a free, or inexpensive, bus ride for SummitCRTA members to the April Protest. With our HC/Rx in serious jeopardy. At this critical time, we cannot afford to spend membership money on anything but our lobbying efforts in Columbus. Without the STRS retiree HC/Rx, the alternative is too scary to be wasting our funds on the Honors & Scholarships. Further, I strongly urge all CountyRTA's, ORTA & CORE members to do the same and to unite in raising funds for busing members, friends and families to Columbus next April or after the Nov. election, even sooner.

RHJones, SummitCRTA, ORTA & CORE member