July 17, 2021- 4:03 p.m.
Republican officials have warned retired teachers in Texas this week who are unlikely to receive additional payments of up to $ 2,400 from the state teacher retirement fund, and the Democratic Party has closed a special session.
Republicans held at least three press conferences this week, pointing their fingers at Democrats who fled to Washington, DC on Monday to block the Republican voting bill.
At a press conference on Friday, Senator Angela Paxton of R-McKinney said: .. “They are worth better than having a legislator skipping classes because they don’t like the assignment.”
However, Democrats and teacher groups are supposed to blame the Republicans for failing the bill during regular legislative sessions and are now using retired teachers as political pawns in the fight over the Democratic quorum bankruptcy.
It states that it is.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed Senate Bill 7. It provides retired teachers, counselors, and school staff with a one-time payment or “13th check” of up to $ 2,400 through the Texas Teacher Retirement Program.
This applies to thousands of ex-educators who quit their jobs by the beginning of the year and reached their retiree pockets by January 2022.
Those retirees say that assigning accusations is less important than putting those checks outdoors.“I want to see the’13th check’in the hands of all retirees who deserve this,” said retired educator Rita Lannels. “I want to see them do this together.”
Texas American Teachers’ Federation Said on twitter “Sudden” interest in passing the 13th time, check out the “Ring Hollow” in this special session.
The organization tweeted, “Blaming House Democrats for’killing’the bill by breaking the quorum to maintain Texas’ voting rights wipes out the long-standing omissions of state leaders.
There is no such thing. “D-Austin’s Congressman Vicky Goodwin endorsed House Bill 3507, the thirteenth check method for educators who retired during the regular session.
A full chamber vote is planned.“If it got to the floor, it would have been widely passed-so this whole idea that we keep teachers from receiving the thirteenth salary is ridiculous,” Goodwin said. Said.
“I had the opportunity to do that during the session.”The Republican Party chairs the Calendar Committee, which schedules the House of Representatives voting bill.
Governor Greg Abbott spokesman Renae Ez said in a statement Friday that the governor would work to help retired educators.
“Our retired teachers are worth better than Texas Democrats walking on them and waiving their obligations to those who elected them,” Eze said.
Goodwin said it was frustrating for Republicans to use educators as weapons.“I have great respect for our teachers and retired teachers,” Goodwin said.
“Never use them as game pawns to make other groups of people look bad.”
Republicans said Thursday that they did not pass Goodwin’s bill during regular legislative sessions because the state did not have the necessary funds.
In a statement, Speaker of the House Dade Phelan, Enrique Marquez, said the economy had improved after the pandemic and recession, citing a revision of the biennial income estimate from the Governor’s Office last week.
“The state has billions of dollars in general revenue that weren’t available during regular sessions,” Marquez said.
“We would like to commit some of this to the 13th check for retired teachers when House Democrats finally return to work.”
The Comptroller’s office also updated its revenue estimates in the last month of May’s regular meeting, stating that the state “expects economic growth to continue over the next two years.”
He said the forecast did not take into account the expenditures made during the session.
“Texas is in a position to recover from the outbreak of COVID and return to standards of economic growth that exceed the country’s speed,” Texas supervisor Glenn Hegar said in a press release.
House Bill 120, an additional bill submitted during the special session, provided retired teachers with a living cost adjustment for their pension checks.
Tim Lee, executive director of the Texas Retired Teachers Association, said the thirteenth check would pass a bill to increase the adjustment of living expenses, although it is a short-term solution to help retired educators.
It’s a more difficult and long-term goal.
Additional Money for Teachers Retired on “13th Check” at the Center of Republican and Democratic Cry
