Retired teachers across Texas hoping for a change in retirement benefits on Election Day

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (KBTX) -As voting season quickly approaches, former teachers are hoping voters give them a bump in their current budget.

Election Day will be the day state constitutional amendments passed by the Texas Legislature are voted on, including Proposition 9.

Tim Lee, the Executive Director of the Texas Teachers Association elaborates on what Proposition 9 does for retired teachers.

“Proposition 9 is the ballot measure that will give them the first raise they have seen in almost 20 years,” Lee said.

Retired teachers across Texas are currently living on $1,000 per month or less from their state retirement plan.

“And just going to the grocery store, going to the doctor, paying for life, is just really hard in this economy on 1,000 bucks,” said Lee.

The District 6 Retired Teacher’s Association met Wednesday morning in Huntsville to discuss the details of this Proposition.

The President of the Madison County Retired Teachers Association talks about the purpose of their group meeting.

“What we’re doing is trying to charge them up and get them excited to go out and tell the voters of their community,” she said.

Tim adds, “we’re educating the public on something they probably did not know. If I were to walk up to someone right now and say ‘Hey, did you know that our school employees in Texas don’t have social security, and while it saves Texas billions of dollars a year by not sending that money to the federal government, it then turns around and potentially hurts these folks by not giving them cost of living adjustments,’ most people don’t know that,” he said.

If voted yes, these former educators would receive more money once retired and it wouldn’t raise taxes — instead the money would come from the state’s rainy day fund.

Lorraine Coleman, co-president of the Madison County Retired Teachers Association is hoping everyone votes in favor of Proposition 9.

“Those of us been retired for many, many years, and we have never received a cost of living adjustment, COLA, and we’re just asking for the public to vote for, to vote yes, on proposition 9 to give us a little bit of extra income per month. And the entire state of Texas people are the ones that will be voting for this,” she said.

These retired teachers hope Proposition 9 is passed and their cost of living is decreased.