8
University Daily Kansan
Campus/Area
Wednesday Jan. 22,1986
Group distrusts Carlin's plan
By Tim Hrenchir
Staff writer
Some public employees expressed a distrust of the state government and disapproval of Gov. John Carlin's proposed retirement plan for state employees yesterday, but indicated they would accept the plan with certain amendments.
The members of the Douglas County Chapter of the Kansas Association of Public Employees and the KU Classified Senate had a joint meeting to discuss the plan.
Under Carlin's proposal, the state would take over the mandatory retirement contributions now paid by state employees. Most state workers would receive a 4 percent take-home pay increase this year instead of a cost-of-living nike hike.
A show of hands late in the meeting indicated that no one approved of Carlin's plan, but a majority agreed with Charles Dodson, executive director of KAPE, who said the state
plan could be acceptable if certain amendments were adopted.
Dodson said state employees now contributed 4 percent of their take-home pay to the retirement fund and the state matched that amount.
Benefits of Carlin's proposal, Dodson said, would include an increase in employees' take-home pay and no increase in Social Security and state income taxes.
He said that immediate take-home pay would be higher under Carlin's plan than with a cost-of-living increase.
"It sounds like a pretty good deal," he said, "but you have to look beneath the surface."
Dodson said many employees were opposed because they thought the state would be taking total control of their retirement plans.
"We don't trust them," he said.
Dodson said the plan was unacceptable because it would reduce retirement benefits of government
employees and lower death benefits for employees, and could lower Social Security benefits upon retirement.
Dodson said that if the plan was passed, the state might feel inclined to put less money in its retirement fund in the future.
They are:
Dodson outlined five amendments KAPE had proposed for Carlin's plan.
Maintaining the state's retirement refund program.
■ Maintaining the death benefits program.
Indexing an employee's salary for retirement purposes by multiplying his final gross salary by 3 percent so as not to lower monthly retirement benefits
Allowing state employees to elect one KAPE member to serve on the board of trustees of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.
Social work budget funds look bleak
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By Juli Warren
TOPEKA - Speakers at a legislative conference yesterday painted an unpleasant picture of the outlook for getting government funds for human services.
Michigan state Rep. David C. Hollister spoke to about 300 people interested in social work at the fifth annual Legislative Conference on Human Services. The conference was sponsored by the KU School of Social Welfare and Division of Continuing Education.
Sunday
KU Women's League... 3 p.m.
KU Men's League... 7 p.m.
Monday
Monday Mixer... 7 p.m.
Tuesday
Tuesday Open... 7 p.m.
Hollister said the combination of high federal military spending and the shift of fiscal responsibility to the states made it challenging for those trying to get financing for social services.
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About $1.5 trillion have been spent for the military over five years of the Reagan administration, Hollister said.
Social workers, he said, need to educate their legislators about their programs in order to increase their chances of getting funding.
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"We have not taken the time to tell people what it is we do," said Hollister, who is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Services and Energy in the Michigan House.
Welfare is often a popular area for financing cuts because of publicity about welfare fraud, he said, but the areas covered under the term "welfare" often include more than constituents know.
Participants, who were mainly social workers, attended meetings in the morning to discuss the legislative agenda of priority in human services, Swall said.
Wednesday
Wednesday Mixer... 7 p.m.
Thursday
Guys & Dolls... 7 p.m.
Friday
T.G.I.F... 4 p.m.
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Members of panels yesterday included Rep. Bill Bunten, R-Topeka, and Sen. Gus Bogina, R-Lenexa, Alden Shields, director of the state office of budget, and several state cabinet secretaries.
Betty Caruthers, Lawrence graduate student, said the information about impending financing problems didn't discourage her from going into social work.
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"If anything, it makes me more committed knowing the needs are so great," she said.
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"It doesn't put fear in me or make me worried about after graduation." Caruthers, who is working as a student intern in the Topeka office of Rep. Jim Slattery, D-Kan., said that the program was giving her the coalitions' points of view and that she would tell them to Slattery.
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Carol Taylor, Lawrence graduate student, said the outlook for financing for her interest, the deaf and hearing impaired, was "very discouraging."
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