Today we received notification that a Bill that our Lodge helped sponsor before merger has finally come to fruition. We began working on this bill over a year and a half ago. Much of the groundwork was laid by then Vice President of Louisville Lodge 6, Jerald Fifer. Jerry met with a team from the Social Security Offices here in Louisville to learn exactly what we were facing. The people form the Louisville Social Security office held several meetings for our members at Denton Hall. The concern for LPD members was that the City of Louisville had not participated in Social Security since 1956 and that it would not benefit many of our members to begin paying into the system now.Last month under the Social Security Protection Act, our portion of the bill passed the Senate. on February 11th it cleared the House of Representatives in Washington and we expect President Bush to sign off on the bill and thereby making it a national law next week.What this means is that Kentuckians will join 32 other States in what has been labeled "Named State Status" and members that were not allowed to participate in Social Security because of the Municipality Exclusion will now be able to make that choice for themselves.What this means to our members is that they can choose either to get in or stay out. Former County Officers and all new hires will automatically be in the program. Former City police Officers and EMS personnel will make the decision on whether or not they will participate over the next couple of months.
Financially it would require that each individual would start paying roughly 6% of their salary in order to become enrolled in the program. The Metro Government has to match those funds. With the majority of the former City Officers not wanting to participate it will save the Metro Government over $4 million dollars in contributions. This action will be retroactive to January 6, 2003.
We would like to thank Senators Mitch McConnel and Jim Bunning who were instrumental in getting this passed through the Senate in January. We would also like to thank Representatives Anne Northrop and Ron Lewis for getting this passed in the House of Representatives. The old saying goes, "Actions Speak Louder Than Words", this is self evident in the passage of this bill. This is a win-win situation for our Officers and for our community. The work that was done was accomplished by dedicated and trained FOP personnel working hard for the membership to ensure that we utilize every aspect of our ability in protecting the benefits of our members.