Dave Parshall: CORE is the only group prepared to fight for 3% COLA, and will do so in court if need be

Dave Parshall to CORE members, June 2, 2010

CORE members and supporters, as you may know our next CORE meeting is June 10th at STRS in Columbus. We have a special quest joining us, the Attorney General of the State of Ohio, Mr. Richard Cordray. Thanks goes to CORE member John Curry for helping make Mr. Cordray’s visit a reality. CORE will be thanking him for the recovery of millions of dollars lost due to fraud on Wall Street. There have been recent attempts in Congress to make it illegal for State Attorneys General to go after Wall Street, but the good news is that these attempts have failed so far.

At our last CORE meeting it was decided that CORE needs to help our members make wise decisions in this coming November’s election. This election could not be more critical for STRS members. It could determine the kind of pension you have and the financial security that your retirement system will continue to provide. Educators have a history of often voting against their own best financial interests. CORE is in the process of coming up with 10 pertinent questions to ask candidates for office (especially state offices) like, “Do you support Defined Benefit Pensions?” We will then encourage as many of our members as possible to meet with candidates in their districts and ask them to respond to the 10 questions. CORE will then post on our website the names of candidates who responded favorably to our questions. This will be non-partisan. At this point we will support any politician who will support us. Please help us write the 10 questions by sending your suggestions to Dave Parshall at dparshall@insight.rr.com or bring them to our June or August CORE meetings.

On the 10th there will be a very short CORE meeting followed by our speaker at 12:30. We will break for lunch at 11:30. Lunch is on your own in the STRS cafeteria. After all, CORE is not a banquet club. Remember, CORE is the only group that is prepared to fight for the 3% simple COLA for current retirees and will do so in court if need be. We only ask for fairness for those who are the weakest among us. I hope to see as many of you as possible on June 10th.

David Parshall,
President of CORE