Pike and Quitno speak to MRTA

Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Rep. Patricia Pike speaks at the fourth annual MRTA dinner at the Bowman Building, Friday.
Gabe Franklin

Patricia Pike, Missouri Representative for District 126 and co-chair of the house retirement committee, updated the Vernon County chapter of the Missouri Retired Teachers Association on recent legislation protecting educators retirement during a chapter meeting Friday evening at Nevada R-5’s Bowman building.

“I want to tell you all how proud I am to stand on the house floor as a retired educator and to … look out for our schools and our students and our educators, retired educators, and school personnel,” Pike said. “It means a great deal.”

Pike introduced House Bills 304 and 305 during the 2017 legislative session.

House Bill 304 modified provisions of the teacher and school employee retirement systems, specifically those relating to beneficiaries.

“If a retiree designates a spouse to be who they want their retirement to go to when something happens to the retiree and then years go by and they get a divorce,” Pike said. “There wasn’t really a clause to go back and retain that retirement. You could get divorced and maybe not see that spouse again and then they could still have your retirement. This fixed that.”

Retirees will now be able to designate a new beneficiary within one year if they remarry.

“It just made it more friendly and it helped us and helped you to be protected if that happens,” Pike said.

House Bill 305 requires every retiree and school district statewide to follow the 550 hour Work After Retirement law.

“House Bill 305 had to do with independent contractors,” Pike said. “At first it wasn’t so much of an issue, but them with time around the state, independent contractors like Kelly Services and other contractors were telling retirees you can work unlimited hours under us and not have to follow the 550 rule. Now, that was mainly happening in larger towns in Missouri, where down the road, for example, you might be a retired teacher that did not have any kind of a contractor to hire you — you worked for a school district and so thus you were following the 550 rule. So it became an issue for the foundation of our retirement system and it became an issue of fairness.”

“This was a very interesting year,” Pike said. “The house, I think, is very pro-education and supportive of retirees and our legislation moved through well — went through the Senate committee hearings well but then it kind of laid on the senate desk and didn’t really move.”

That’s when Pike and the bill’s other sponsors attached it to Senate Bill 62 as it moved through the House and was signed into law.

“I’m so happy we were able to do that and get this legislation through for you,” Pike said.

Pike also touched on REAL ID requirements for Missouri drivers licenses. Measures have been passed into law but will take more than a year to implement and will not increase the cost of a drivers license. She said the state has requested a compliance extension from the federal government.

“Depending on the level of security you want for your information — on your driver’s license — you’ll get to pick,” Pike said.

“It’s an honor to work on your behalf in Jefferson City and it’s great to see so many of you here tonight. Thank you,” she said.

Also to speak Friday evening was Associate Circuit Judge Neal Quitno who spoke on his role as a judge and the role of the courts.

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