NAGE Wins Fight Against Section 104 of Mass Wins Act

NAGE is proud to report that our lobbying of the legislature to reject Section 104 of the Mass Wins Act (House 5386) has been successful!

In June, NAGE and a coalition of other public sector labor unions called on the Healey Administration to remove Section 104 from the Act, which aimed to establish an exemption to the strict set of guidelines that the Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM) Board currently follows, allowing for the transfer of between $50 and $100 million to be used as grants to support economic development initiatives.

"While our coalition supports ideas for growth in Massachusetts, we strongly believe it is both unwise and illegal to utilize the state pension system as a source of grant funding for those initiatives," wrote NAGE National President David J. Holway in the coalition opposition letter.

NAGE engaged in many dialogues with the Governor and her team, but remained firmly opposed to Section 104.  

After persistent hard work from NAGE's lobbying team, Section 104 has been removed from the Act! The Senate is preparing to debate the Senate Economic Development bill this week, and Section 104 has not been included. We are grateful to the legislature for voting down any potentially harmful proposals that could weaken the state pension system.

NAGE will continue our vigilance, and watch for any future Bills that may contain similar language. We remain committed to protecting our members pensions!