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Helen Lowery to Editor of the Observer
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At the last CORRE Board meeting, Dub Schultz (President-Elect) mentioned a letter to the
editor in response to a recent article in the Oak Ridge papers. That article cited
"frozen pensions" as a target for the city of Oak Ridge. The letter was published
in the Observer on September 25th, but because it was not published in the Oak
Ridger, we are including a copy here for your information.
To the Editor:
I would like to elaborate a bit on the article in the Oak Ridger on September 11th:
“Investing in Oak Ridge’s Economy” authored by Martin McBride as a Guest Columnist,
He lists six Economic Targets which he believes would stabilize the Oak Ridge
economy. My comments pertain to the target entitled: “Increase frozen pensions of
workers who retired from the Oak Ridge federal plants”.
It is well known in Oak Ridge and the surrounding areas that the pensions of retirees
from the local contractor organizations that manage the DOE facilities here are “frozen,”
i.e., they do not receive a cost of living adjustment, as is the case with Social Security, the
Veterans Administration, the armed services, and DOE itself. It is rather well known that
the purchasing power of frozen pensions gradually erodes away carrying the well being
of retirees with it. The Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees (CORRE) has
proposed an adjustment in pensions for retirees of the DOE contractors here which
would restore approximately 75% of the lost purchasing power of their pensions. This
could be done with little or no federal investment since the trust which holds the
retirement funds is well funded; indeed, has maintained a huge surplus above liabilities
for many years. CORRE’s proposal, though reasonable and deserved and affordable, has
been greeted with bureaucratic obfuscation, to put it nicely.
That is all background. Now to the point. The economic benefit of the pension
adjustment proposed by CORRE would be huge for Oak Ridge and the surrounding area.
Consider the following estimated economic impact and ask yourself what would we do to
acquire a new company or business with comparable impact.
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Annual Economic Benefit of Pension Adjustment"
Number of Recipients, January 2008: Local 6-County Area*--10,110; Tennessee--11,241
Total Current Pensions, January 2008: Local 6-County Area*--$143M; Tennessee--$154M
Proposed Pension Adjustment**: Local 6-County Area*--$34M; Tennessee--$36M
Annual Economic Impact of Adjustment***: Local 6-County Area*--$71M; Tennessee--$76M
*Anderson, Blount, Knox, Loudon, Morgan, Roane.
**Restoration of 75% of lost purchasing power since retirement, applied to all recipients.
***Source: “The Economic Benefits of the US Dept. of Energy for the State of
Tennessee, 2006,” prepared by the University of Tennessee for the US Dept. of Energy,
published May, 2007.
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As you ponder the benefit of acquiring a new $76M business versus the benefit of
thawing these frozen pensions, remember that the pension thaw approach would require
no additional land, no utility upgrades, no renovations, no tax incentives, nor any of
those other things that seem to be necessary to attract new business to Oak Ridge. Talk
about a “clean business”...this is one!
In view of this fact that the DOE encourages its contractors to be good corporate citizens,
and they are in many ways, it is difficult to understand why DOE is not supportive of the
proposed pension adjustments. Even more surprising is the hesitancy of the contractors to
pursue an adjustment for its retirees as a means for gaining award fee points. In view of
the potential huge economic impact for Oak Ridge and the surrounding area, it is difficult
to understand why our elected representatives, local and otherwise, are not aggressively
working to obtain approval for the proposed adjustment.
I applaud Mr. McBride for including this issue in his list of Economic Targets for Oak
Ridge. By all reasonable measures, it is a worthy target indeed.
Helen Lowery
Oak Ridge |
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Working for Fair, Equitable, and Competitive Benefits
for
12,000 Former K-25, Y-12, and ORNL Employees
Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees
P.O. Box 4266, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831-4366
Email: service@corre.info
Comments and corrections on the CORRE web site: webmaster@corre.info
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