Friday, February 18, 2011

Retired Texas Teachers Get A Tax Increase

            Last month President Obama and the leaders of Congress proudly announced they had “ saved Americans from  a tax increase” Surprise! Surprise! Apparently the President and Congress should have said” We have saved everyone but the retired Texas teachers from getting a tax increase”. That’s what we found out recently when our new annuity checks had been reduced by $50.

            According to the Texas Retired Teacher Association (http://www.trta.org) the reason for the annuity reduction was that “though the Bush era tax cuts were extended” some of the “ tax brackets were extended”. In other words out taxes were increased! Another factor mentioned was that the program called “Making Work Pay” was allowed to expire. In other words our taxes were increased!




                                                   Can This Be Changed


               The TRTA suggests that we should write our Congressman and “ let them know that the tax increase is making a bad situation worse” given that there has been no cost of living increase for10 years for teacher retirees in Texas. ( notice TRTA is asking you to write your Congressman in  Washington, not your state legislator as the tax increase is a national action not on the state level).  While the chances that Congress will give retired teachers back the tax loss are slim and none and slim just left town, the TRTA suggestion is undoubtedly  still worthwhile just to plant in our Congressman’s mind the problems we face as Texas retired teachers ,especially with no cost of living adjustment . I do have one other suggestion though, and that is we ask our Congressman to vote to pass the proposed legislation that would tax us only on the income after  our health insurance is deducted. In other words if a retiree has an annuity of 3000 dollars a month and pays 300 dollars a month in TRS premiums the retiree would be taxed each month on 2700 dollars rather than the full $3000.  This would at least offset the new tax increase. I have more discussion of this in my earlier blog The Texas Legislature And TRS Hold That Line.


                                                  
                                                                        Your Turn

                    My blog is shorter than usual today, mercifully so some might say. LOL! I would be greatly pleased to hear from you on the following and anything else you would like to comment on





                  1. Has your annuity been decreased? If you would like to tell us, by how much?

                  2. Do you have any other suggestions to alleviate this problem this problem?

                  3. Any other comments you would care to make.





                                                                                  How To Comment


                                1.Scroll to the bottom and click on ‘‘comments”

                                2. A new page will come up with a block for you to write your comments.

                                3.  Click on “publish your comments“




                                                                         Thanks For Visiting


  

3 comments:

rich said...

This is Rich and I'm just testing.

Scott said...

Good read Richard. I'm still working in education at age 66 because I'm not sure I can afford to retire. As it happens I'm also having fun in my current assignment and, I think, providing value for sevices rendered. Rumors continue to fly concerning proposed "layoffs" again this year. We'll just have to wait and see. Don't get over-heated.

rich said...

Scott,

Thanks for checking in. I think you probably could retire now, but i understand your reticence, especially if your're still enjoying your work and I have no doubt you're contributing. By the way I'm about to publish my next blog which will be on three kinds of retiree health, including financial health. Hopefully you or no one else will be " laid off" this year. There has to be a better way to handle these budget shortfalls. please drop by the blog again.