Friday, August 19, 2005

Ten Quarters

Yesterday I was asked to sign a petition being circulated in support of Rodney Alexander and Governor Blanco. It seems Rep Alexander wants to submit a bill requiring that everyone who meets eligiblity requiremants will be able to draw from the Social Security retirement system.

I'm a retiree from a state system, and one of these days I will be a retiree from a parish system. For many of those years, I paid social security taxes while working second jobs. Some of those second jobs were pretty lucrative, netting almost the same money as my primary job. Raising kids is expensive.

Many government employees today pay into the Social Security system, but because they get a retirement check from a governmental agency, their Social Security retirement benefit is reduced by some formula amount. Heretofore, I had not expected to draw much in the way of Social Security benefits, because I fit into the category of having a state government retirement. Que Sera.

Still, I paid a bunch of Social Security taxes over the years, and I should be able to draw an amount comensurate with what I paid in. Under the current system, I am penalized becasue I have planned for retirement, in that I will be eventually drawing from a state system and a parish system. The Social Security I paid will be lost, and that just ain't fair.

I support the intiative of Rep Alexander and Governor Blanco in this legislation. I hope it moves forward.

2 comments:

Kelly(Mom of 6) said...

They did the same thing to disabled vets who served 20 years. They would get their retirement pretty much at a tax reduced rate, based on what percentage they were considered disabled. There was a petition recently passed to pay them their retirement benefits AND their disability benefits...so there's a good precedence set here for this legislation.

Anonymous said...

I am a participant in the Railroad Retirement System. Any part time work, paying into SS was/is lost. RR Retirement has paid well for our retirees but, we all paid and EXTRA 5% or so. The money I paid into Social Security before I went to work for the Railroad is gone, too. Of course, if I leave my RR job and go back to the 'real' world, everything (??) reverts to SS again. Ain't life grand?