Today’s video post from newly elected VSEA President Aimee Towne is the first video update she’ll be sharing with the membership weekly. New updates will post every Monday morning at roughly 10:30 a.m.
Towne says she will be covering some of the content contained in the previous Friday’s Week In Action newsletter, as well as providing members and retirees with any calls to action, urgent needs, updates from the State House, pension news, and whatever else important is on VSEA’s radar screen.
In a recent article posted to a site devoted to pensions and investments, State Treasurer Beth Pearce’s position on pensions is compared with that of her main opponent’s, Carolyn Whitney Branagan. Their answers make it clear who deserves VSEA member and retiree votes.
“The defined benefit style of building a retirement system is old-fashioned, it doesn’t work anymore,” Branagan says. “So we need to come up with an alternative, a more modern way of building retirement.”
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“Defined benefit plans, when they provide adequate dollars in retirement, are an economic generator because they result in folks buying goods and services and that creates more jobs,” Pearce says. “They also “provide the best benefit for those employees and facilitate better recruitment and longevity of our employees. “Note: Ask yourself. When Ms. Branagan says a DB plan “doesn’t work anymore,” who exactly isn’t it working for? And “alternative, more modern way” translates to putting new hires in a defined contribution plan, which benefits whom exactly?
Here are VSEA’s candidate endorsements in the 2020 general election. Members and retirees are urged to cast your vote for these endorsed candidates on November 3, or when you early vote.
To emphasize the importance of your vote this year, here is a short video, featuring VSEA President Aimee Towne.
