UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 4
September 26, 1996
UD committee recommends change to state pension plan

     The work of a Commission on the Status of Women committee of
University employees has played a major role in clearing up an
inequity in the state pension plan that has affected all state
employees who earned less than $40,000 annually.
     The project began when a 1992 survey of salaried staff on
campus revealed that one of the main topics of concern was the
Delaware State Pension Plan, under which this group of employees
is covered.
     Since close to 98 percent of those under the state pension
plan at the University were women employees, a commission
committee, which later became an ad hoc task force, was formed to
study and report on the topic.
     Maryanne Brown-MacKay, Master of Arts in Liberal Studies
Program, and Wanda Cook, Faculty Senate, chaired the task force.
Other members of the group who worked on this important issue
were Suzanne Dohl, agricultural sciences; Virginia Moore,
mathematical sciences; Barbara Smith, benefits; and Nancy
Soccorso, women's affairs.
     "We worked hard carrying out research and looking up laws on
the pension plan. None of us realized at the time what we would
discover, how long the process would take and how hard we would
have to work to rectify the situation," Brown-McKay said.
     "The University was supportive in making its facilities
available to us, but the pension plan was basically a state issue
that affected a large group of University employees," she said.
     The task force discovered that state employees who earned
less than $40,000 a year in their highest earning years had their
Social Security benefits subtracted from their pensions. Those
who earned more than $40,000 were not affected in the same way.
     Although this practice was addressed by the Federal 1986 Tax
Reform Act, the state of Delaware, along with other agencies and
corporations, had been granted a year-by-year exemption by the
Internal Revenue Service to "allow employers adequate time for
input and conformity," according to the task force study.
     Brown-MacKay said that after the report was completed, task
force members lobbied in Dover for a change.
     "Many of the legislators had been unaware of the inequities
in the pension plan and became supportive of our position. Sen.
Nancy Cook of Dover made sure the pension change was included in
the budget and was a sponsor of the bill changing the benefit
plan," she said.
     The budget was signed by Gov. Thomas Carper in May, and a
signing of Senate Bill 78 took place July 18.
     "We are elated," Brown-MacKay said. "From now on pensioners
whose salary was less than the bench mark will receive their full
pensions without Social Security being deducted as is mandated by
the 1986 Tax Reform Act. Our efforts and hard work were worth it
and have made an important difference for countless retired
University employees and state employees throughout Delaware"
                                              -Sue Swyers Moncure