Saturday letters: Return COLAs to RI retirees; NOAA's new facility in Newport
Return compounded COLAs owed to RI retirees
I have a relatively simple and extremely direct solution to the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) nightmare created by the General Assembly in 2011 and perpetuated by that same body in 2015 with the codification of a decidedly forced Settlement Agreement.
Return the 3% compounded COLAs, retroactive and with interest, to all pre-RIRSA retirees. This should be given primary consideration since state and federal laws were subverted, as well as was a U.S. Supreme Court decision, in the passage of the illegal and unconstitutional Rhode Island Retirement Security Act of 2011, as well as its progeny, the Settlement Agreement of 2015. No state, I'm sure, wants the dubious distinction of being voted in the top 10 most corrupt states in the U.S. − R.I. came in 4th last year − but actions such as the aforementioned make the vote eminently understandable.
The utter lack of attention to the pension fund in the face of hundreds of millions of "free" dollars coming into the state, as well as the then-governor's 2015 outrageous-yet-acceded-to request that excess revenues be funneled away from the pension fund, when the then-current law stated that they go directly into the pension fund, clearly signaled to anyone with a functioning brain that the whole pension overhaul was a sham, clearly conducted for reasons other than those stated at the time.
Patricia Giammarco, North Providence
The writer is a retired employee of the State of Rhode Island.
Welcoming NOAA's new headquarters
The exciting announcement that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will construct a new headquarters for its Atlantic fleet at Naval Station Newport is a testament to years of strategic planning in Rhode Island through the federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decisions dating back to 1991, 1995 and 2005.
The team effort included local, state, and federal officials and the Newport County Chamber of Commerce-led business community, with particular leadership from Sen. Jack Reed. Today, Naval Station Newport's combined operations are the largest single employer in Newport County and third overall in Rhode Island.
Keith W. Stokes, Newport
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Saturday letters: Return COLAs to RI retirees; NOAA's new facility in Newport
