Four freshmen lawmakers say speaker wants them to give up retirement pay or resign
Rep. Phillip Gunn, Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives and a Republican, is attempting to bully four newly elected Representatives into resigning because they are retired state employees. All four are also Republicans. The Public Employee Retirement System board changed its policy last year to allow state retirees to run for public office and draw half of the legislative salary (around $5,000) and keep drawing their retirement. Gunn is telling these employees he will not allow them to keep their retirement. He does not have the authority to make that call. He is blatantly overruling the PERS board who set the policies for retirees because he does not want these retirees to vote against any negative legislation which would affect PERS and does not want more retirees serving in the legislature. This is outrageous and unprecedented. If Gunn will take these actions, what else will he do to retirees???
MRPEA supports allowing retirees to serve in the legislature and exists to help protect retirees from this kind of negative treatment and keeping the membership informed as to what is happened. Therefore, MRPEA is calling for all members to call the State Capitol Switchboard at 601-359-3300 and leave a message saying that you want Speaker Gunn to stop bullying these employees and allow them to take their seats as they were elected by their constituents to do and to stop threatening that he will stop their retirement benefits. Gunn’s home phone number is 601-924-8438. Mention that you are a member of MRPEA. Please share this post with friends and family who are PERS retirees.
Thank you.
For your information the four representatives are:
Billy Andrews – Hattiesburg
Ramona Blackledge, Jones County
Jerry Darnell – DeSoto County
Dale Goodin – Perry County