Trina Kay Prufer: "What happened was not an unintended consequence… it was planned and executed exactly as intended."

Trina Kay Prufer

9/13/2024

A Humanitarian Crisis - In 2012, Ohio’s educators were duped about the INTENT and DETAILS  of “reform” legislation, and many are now unable to afford the basic necessities of life. 

In 2012, the Ohio Legislature and STRS conspired to pass legislation, which among other changes, would permanently remove the core pension benefit of inflation protection from the STRS benefit model. Although this saved billions in promised future benefits, it resulted in Ohio’s active teachers paying more for a benefit than its normal cost, and left retirees in an economic vise with an ever increasing inability to cover basic expenses. 

So how did this come about? Both STRS and the State Legislature LIED about what was in the bill. A LIE of omission is a particularly devious and intentional effort to mislead given it was planned by legislators, lobbyists and attorneys. 

How it was presented to educators and the public belied its actual intent, which is stated unequivocally at the very END the bill.  It is nowhere to be found in the ORC, despite its being the most significant core element of the legislation. The legislation was designed to remove the cola permanently from retirees, who had been promised an automatic annual cola at the time of retirement, and actives, who were certainly paying enough (14%) to fund a cola as a component of the benefit. 

Below is the Intent Statement as it appears in SB 342 as passed, the “interpretation” of the bill disseminated by STRS to members AFTER passage of the bill, and information on including (or not) Intent Statements in the ORC. 

Legislation should be written in clear, unequivocal language, not in wordage that is ambiguous and obfuscates its intended outcome. Every STRS member should have been informed of the intended permanent loss of inflation protection in this bill, before, during and after its passage. 

You can’t hide injustice… it’s all there in the shameful history of this bill and its predictable aftermath. At the very least, emergency measures are now needed to supplement the  benefits of our oldest members. What happened was not an unintended consequence… it was planned and executed exactly as intended.