As a retired school administrator and a past president of the Maine Association of Retirees, I am using this letter to urge Maine Public Service retirees and retired public school educators, as well as regular Maine citizens who support these retirees, to contact Gov. Mills and urge her to sign into law L.D. 1104, An Act To Clarify the State’s Commitments Concerning Certain Public Service Retirement Benefits.

L.D. 1104 will simply make a cost-of-living adjustment a requirement and will give the Legislature and the board of trustees of the Maine Public Employees Retirement System the flexibility to keep the retirement system solvent and thus will permit the state to keep the promises that were made to public service retirees before they were hired and while they were working. L.D. 1104 does not set the method of determination or the amount or the percentage of the pension to which a cost-of-living adjustment will apply. It simply will make a cost-of-living adjustment on MePERS pensions a contractual obligation.

Both branches of the 129th Maine Legislature have passed L.D. 1104 and sent it on to Gov. Mills, who has three options: Sign it now, veto it or let it become law by not acting on it.

I encourage Maine citizens to contact Gov. Mill by either writing to her or by sending her emails urging her to do the right thing for the retired people who spent their careers serving the state of Maine.

Robert Powers

East Waterboro

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