'Struggling to make ends meet': Texans approve pension pay increases for retired teachers

Texas voters Tuesday night overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that will give many retired teachers their first cost-of-living adjustment in decades.

Proposition 9, which will inject $3.35 billion into the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, sailed to approval with 84% support, receiving 2.14 million votes in favor and 416,191 against, according to the unofficial election results.

In Travis County, nearly 89% of voters — 126,060 of 142,449 — approved Proposition 9, results show.

The measure will give retired teachers and other former school staff a pension payment boost of between 2% and 6%, depending on when they retired.

• 2% increase for those who retired after Aug. 31, 2013, but before Aug. 31, 2020.

• 4% increase for those who retired after Aug. 31, 2001, but before Aug. 31, 2013.

• 6% increase for those who retired on or before Aug. 31, 2001.

Retirees who advocated for the increase during the regular legislative session over the spring say the voter-approved pension increases will help former educators cover inflationary cost increases to housing, medical bills, groceries and other expenses.

The state's teacher retirement system also provides pensions to other school employees.

'Desperate for an increase'

Many retired Texas teachers haven’t had a pension payment increase since 2004.

Prop 9 will help about 425,000 retirees, said Tim Lee, executive director of the Texas Retired Teachers Association.

“Those folks have lost anywhere between 13% and 34% of their purchasing power,” Lee said. “That hurts no matter where you go. They have lost the value of their dollar by a strong percentage. They are, many of them, desperate for an increase.”

Larry Yawn, a retired teacher who lives in Round Rock, said many former educators are struggling with decisions about whether they can afford to buy the medicine they need, pay for food or cover housing costs.

“It was amazing the number of people who were having to make impossible choices between what they would be able to afford this month versus what they'd be able to afford next month,” Yawn, who retired 20 years ago after teaching U.S. government and history in Austin and Houston, told the American-Statesman in a recent interview.

Ovidia Molina, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, and Barbara Davis-Staley, president of the association’s retired chapter, applauded voters' passage of the proposition Tuesday night.

“Many of these retired educators, who spent their careers putting millions of Texas children on the road to success as adults, have been struggling to make ends meet,” Molina and Davis-Staley said.

Most educators in Texas don’t qualify for Social Security. The Austin district is one of the few in the state in which teachers also pay into Social Security.

“These pension adjustments will be modest, ranging from 2 to 6 percent, depending on when an individual retired, but they will make life easier for thousands of our retirees,” Molina and Davis-Staley said.

Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday night also praised the cost-of-living adjustment, calling it “crucial.”

“Texas will provide a pay raise for retired teachers who dedicated their careers to educating the future leaders of our state,” Abbott said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

To pay for the retirees' pension raise, lawmakers are drawing from the state's $33 billion budget surplus, which the Legislature had available to spend during the legislative session. The investment won’t raise taxes.

The multibillion-dollar expense required voter approval because lawmakers would be busting the constitutionally approved spending cap.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas election: Voters approve pension increases for retired teachers