My letter to Sen. Andrew Brenner 02/24/22; please support S.B. 280

Dear Senator Brenner,

I am writing to respectfully urge you to support S.B. 280, which would restore a COLA to Ohio's retired teachers. I taught in Ohio over 30 years, retiring in 1998. When I retired at age 60, I was promised a COLA, and was counting very much on it to provide a comfortable retirement for myself, especially since I've been widowed for many years, relying solely on my income to make it through the rest of my life. Having STRS cut off my COLA has hurt very much. 

My pension has now been flatlined for five years, and I am feeling the pain with inflation raging out of sight. I will be 84 in less than three weeks. I can't go back to work now. Since our COLA was cut off so abruptly, I and many other retirees were caught in the lurch, not given enough time to make other plans for our future. We are hurting.

I am counting on you to please support S.B. 280 to restore the COLA to STRS retired teachers. I don't expect to be around many more years; I need my COLA now. Your help would be so much appreciated by me and by thousands of other retired teachers. We didn't make big salaries to begin with. and we put thousands of our hard-earned dollars into the pension fund for our retirement, not expecting to have the rug pulled out from under us. I feel helpless and betrayed by my pension system. Please help us; we want only what is ours, no more.

Thank you. 

Katherine B. Bracy