Setting the State Legislative Agenda
by Dee-Dee Goidel (Legislative Liason)
As our state legislators begin debating the 2012-13 budget, they’ll have one eye focused on their home districts because all 212 seats are open for election this fall. Sixty-two senators and 150 assembly members, if they want to keep their jobs, will be campaigning for the vote.
The legislature also has to finalize the new election districts based on the 2010 census. What that means is this is a good year to make our wants known; our elected representatives will be listening.
Our retiree legislative committee, in conjunction with CSA, has developed an agenda that reflects our chief concerns, many of which are perennial in nature and have to do with protecting benefits negotiated in past contracts when we were employed. Our 2012 legislative agenda is as follows:
- Protect our health benefits by maintaining 100 percent city-paid premiums.
- Protect our pensions in the face of upcoming pension reform measures.
- Work for affordable prescription drugs
- Expansion of and enhanced early childhood education. (Legislation: A7591 Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan/S5650 State Sen. John J. Flanagan)
- Recruit and retain quality school administrators and supervisors.
- TurnAround Schools: Amendments to the education law in relation to assessments of the persistently lowest achieving schools (Legislation: A7501 Catherine Nolan/S5648 John J. Flanagan)
Unequal until 2056
Women will have to wait another 44 years to see pay equality, predicts the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
The continued struggle for equal pay for the same job has recently spurred several forums on Capitol Hill conducted by Woman’s Policy Inc., a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy organization.
No legislation to date has effectively closed the gender gap: not the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act 1963, not Title VII 1964 Civil Rights Act, not the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, not the 1991 amendments to title VII, not affirmative action nor Title IX gender equality in all sports.
We who worked, or are working for the school system, never experienced such wage disparity as we had a union to protect and negotiate for us. But not everyone is so fortunate.
In the United States, women make roughly 77 cents to the dollar that men earn.
According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, “The wage gap exists, in part, because many women and people of color are still segregated into a few lowpaying occupations. More than half of all women workers hold sales, clerical and service jobs. Studies show that the more an occupation is dominated by women or people of color, the less it pays.
“Part of the wage gap results from differences in education, experience or time in the workforce. But a significant portion cannot be explained by any of those factors; it is attributable to discrimination. In other words, certain jobs pay less because they are held by women and people of color … ”
Certainly, this inequity shouldn’t take until 2056 to correct.
Visiting Albany
We will, of course, amend the agenda if new issues surface, and, as always, will remain vigilant about school reform measures and cuts to our schools’ budgets.
As many of you know, Retiree Chapter members visit Albany every year to bring our message to lawmakers; we are always well received because of our professionalism and the manner in which we discuss our issues. This year, as we did last year, we’ll send two delegations - one in late winter, one in mid-spring. I’ll keep you posted when we schedule these trips and their outcomes.
