Educational Retirement Board wants to to change guidelines

Editor,

Everyone contributing to the Educational Retirement Board (ERB) should take notice.

The UNM Staff Council sent out one of its usual e-mails Tuesday, and the first paragraph alerts people about changes that the ERB is making. While the e-mail did not outline specific details, a quick look at the New Mexico ERB site (nmerb.org) shows the proposed changes.
From the NMERB main page, you can click on the link “NMERB Plan Design Proposals – DRAFT” to view the proposal. Read it if you can. It’s interesting.

Make no mistake, people: This will affect many New Mexicans. Everyone who works in public schools, junior colleges or universities will be affected by this change. If you are eligible to retire, it seems that now would be the time, otherwise you will have to crunch the numbers.
Under the plan, you will need to work for 35 years, or 30 years if you are 60 years old. If you have less than 22 years of service as of June 30, 2011, these changes will apply to you no matter what plan you are under (Tier 1 or Tier 2).

I would strongly urge you to start contacting your politicians and voicing your opinion.

The ERB contracted Research and Polling Inc. to conduct surveys regarding the proposed changes. This gives the appearance that members’ input is valuable, but I don’t recall being informed of the Nov. 8 meeting in which the proposal was approved. I only found out when someone else brought it to my attention.

The ERB is supposed to modify the proposal and vote on the final set of recommendations on Dec. 10 at 9:30 a.m. Right now, I am planning to attend the meeting, and I am also crossing my fingers. The NMERB meeting will be at the Albuquerque office at 6201 Uptown N.E., Suite 204.

Louis Herring
UNM staff

Editor’s Note: The Daily Lobo will
continue to follow this story.