May 2016 - MOAA Florida Council of Chapters

Heartlander
South Central Florida Chapter
May 2016
South Central Florida Chapter of MOAA
P.O. Box 7841
Sebring, FL 33872
Our Web Site: www.scfcmoaa.org
Chapter Officers
President: Mike Borders, tel. (h)863-402-8292;(c)703-795-8776
Vice President: Ron Buckley, tel. 863-314-9716
Treasurer, John Harbaugh, tel. 863-658-1192
Secretary: Malcolm Johnson, tel. 863-242-9215
Recruiting/Retention: Ed Gadbois, tel. 808-280-7773
Legislative Affairs: Tom Nunnallee, tel. 863-446-0055
Newsletter: Bob Brooks, tel. 863-471-6318
Past President: Roy Whitton
Our next dinner/social with spouses/better halves/significant
others: Date: 10 May 2016. Time: 6:30 p.m.
Venue: Caddyshack. 3122 Golfview Road, Sebring, FL 33870.
Guest Speakers: Florida State Senator Denise Grimsley and
Florida State Representative Cary Pigman.
June Meeting: 8 June 2016. Board Meeting: 1730 (5:30 PM)
Business Meeting, 1900hrs (7:00 PM). Speaker: Fred Carino
Venue: NEWS FLASH: The June 8th Meeting will be at the
Sea Services Museum, 1402 Roseland Ave., Sebring, FL 33870,
(corner of Kenilworth and Roseland, about a mile east of Sebring
High School).
President’s Message:
As we enter May, all of us (hopefully) have paid the tax man and
are starting to note less traffic as our Snowbird friends have
started their trek north. We look forward to seeing them again in
the fall.
There are several informative items in the “Did You Know?”
section this month. Be sure to take a look. I highly recommend
that you sign up for MOAA’s legislative updates. You can do this
on the MOAA homepage at www.moaa.org. There is also plenty
of useful information on our chapter webpage at
www.scfcmoaa.org, and also the Florida State Council webpage
at www.moaafl.org. Stay informed and keep up to date on the
latest issues affecting your benefits and those of the current
active duty force. These issues affect the military and the
security of the nation we all so proudly served.
With regard to the number of members in the chapter (currently
45), I have been asked which is most important, numbers, or
doing good things. I don’t believe you can have one without the
other. It takes people to round up toys for Christmas, to put
together a scholarship donation, to visit the JROTC units, and of
course to enjoy the camaraderie in the company of fellow
officers. I noted that after the last business meeting, folks stood
around and chatted for a long time. It reminded me of the O’Club
or sitting on the back steps of a unit area at the end of the day.
I want to give a special thanks/Bravo Zulu/Kudos to our chapter
Vice President Ron Buckley for his excellent presentation on the
Florida Auxiliary State Trooper program. It was very informative
and looked every bit like a military briefing. I have had one
comment that the wives might like the presentation. (Cont.)
President’s Message (Cont):
We will look at that in the future. I also want to note that we
have guest speakers lined up for the next several months. But I
need ideas. Keep in mind that we try to focus the briefings at
the business meetings more to the members, and the dinner
meetings are topics that the spouses will find useful.
To that end, our dinner meeting in May will feature State Senator
Denise Grimsley and State Representative Cary Pigman. They
are not speaking to us to “run for office,” but rather to inform us
what is going on in the statehouse. We are not inviting them
because they are Republicans, but because they are our
representatives in Tallahassee. We have to remember that
MOAA is apolitical and non-partisan. This allows MOAA to work
both sides of the aisle at the state and national levels to better
preserve our current and future benefits.
Did You Know?
Military Records/DD-214 are now available online. The National
Personnel Records Center (NPRC) website: http://
vetrecs.archives.gov or http://www.archives.gov/veterans/
military-service-records. Do you still have your DD-214? Did
you misplace it? Does your spouse know where it is? This is a
great way to get a copy. Veterans and next of kin of deceased
former military members may now use an online system to
request documents. Other individuals with a need for documents
must still complete a Standard Form 180, which can be
downloaded from the online website. Because the requester will
be asked to supply all information essential for the NPRC to
process the request, delays that normally occur when NPRC has
to ask veterans for additional information should be minimized.
The new web-based application was designed to provide better
service on these requests by eliminating the records centers
mailroom and processing time.
MOAA’s Top 10 Goals for 2016
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Ensure any TRICARE reform sustains top-quality care
Prevent disproportional TRICARE fee hikes
Sustain military pay compatibility with the private sector
Block erosion of compensation and commissary benefits
Protect military retirement/COLAs
Sustain wounded warrior programs/expand caregiver
support
End disabled/survivor financial penalties
Credit Guard/Reserve call-ups for retirement purposes
Improve spouse and family support
Assure timely access to VA and eliminate claims backlog
TAKE ACTION!!
Be Sure to Visit:
Our Web Site: www.scfcmoaa.org
Did You Know 2?
Did You Know 3?
Comparing Retired Pay and Active Duty Pay Increases
Issue: Retired pay and active duty pay increases are different in
most years because they are based on different compensation
principles.
Background: Retired pay increases are made each year to
maintain the same retired pay purchasing power each member
had at retirement. This is accomplished through annual Cost of
Living Adjustments (COLAs), which are based on the Bureau of
Labor Statistics' (BLS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) -- the
measure of inflation. The CPI is also used to adjust annuities for
other federal retirees, survivors, and social security recipients.
Active duty pay raises serve a different purpose. They are
designed to keep active duty pay comparable and competitive
with wage growth in the private sector. Pay raises for the active
force are based on a different BLS metric -- the Employment
Cost Index (ECI) -- that measures private sector wage growth.
Annually raising active duty pay at the same pace as the private
sector is essential to sustain a quality force-and maintain
readiness-over the long term. Price inflation (CPI) and private
sector wage growth (ECI) are rarely equal for any given year,
and this can lead to a disparity in the annual adjustments to
retired pay versus active duty pay. For most years from the
mid-1970s through the, mid-90s, COLAs were higher than active
duty pay raises, primarily because active duty pay raises were
being regularly capped below the ECI. The track record for
keeping annual retired pay COLAs up with the CPI was much
better, but not perfect. No COLA was paid in 1985, and COLA
payments were delayed three months each year for 1994-1996.
In the late 1990's, chronic retention problems (caused by years
of capping active duty pay) led Congress to authorize healthy
active duty pay raises, which were larger than COLAs from
1997-2005. More recently, the retiree COLA has exceeded the
pay raise percentage in three of the past four years. In past
years when active duty raises were larger, some retirees asked
why retired pay can't be updated each year based on current
active duty pay tables, which was the practice before 1958. One
of the reasons Congress shifted to CPI-based COLAs in 1963
was the lack of active duty pay raises between 1958 and 1963.
MOAA supported a lawsuit in the early 70's to return to the
active duty standard. This lawsuit went to the Supreme Court
and lost. Retirees ended up benefiting from the switch to CPI
COLAs, since inflation accelerated dramatically a few years
later, yielding COLAs much higher than active duty raises.
Today, returning to the active duty standard would actually cut
pay for many retirees. MOAA Position: After more than 40 years
of basing COLAs and pay raises on different standards, there is
no political support to link retired pay adjustments to active duty
pay levels. Active duty raises are paid to sustain retention, and
there's no retention issue once a member leaves active duty.
MOAA vigilantly monitors annual retired pay COLAs and will
strongly oppose any attempts to cap these adjustments below
inflation. Key Bills/Status: No bills have been introduced in the
114th Congress, but the several studies have recommended
adopting a "chained COLA" that would depress the current
COLA as a means of reducing long-term costs and would have a
huge impact on the value of retired pay over the long term. Most
recently, adoption of a "chained COLA" was being proposed to
help avert the Fiscal Cliff. MOAA will remain vigilant to fend off
any proposals that will devalue earned retired pay. - See more at: http://www.moaa.org/Content/Take-Action/TopIssues/Currently-Serving/Retired-Pay-vs-Active-Duty-PayAdjustments.aspx#sthash.eI92YOZV.dpuf.
MOAA Briefs House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees
March 18, 2016
This week, the MOAA Deputy Director of Government Relations
presented MOAA veterans' health and benefits priorities before a
joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs
Committees. The MOAA priorities focused on improving VAsponsored community care, women veterans' health care,
upgrades to the appeals process, and stronger financial
protections for military families. MOAA recommended increased
focus on reforming and consolidating the seven disparate
community care programs into a single program. The VA claimsmanagement system remains a top priority. MOAA supports a
comprehensive, integrated strategy for improving the system,
with emphasis on quality decisions at the front end of the claims
process. Other recommendations discussed at the hearing and
outlined in MOAA's statement included: Improving and expanding
mental health care, suicide prevention, homeless, and caregiver
support programs; Integrating educational assistance programs
under a unified GI Bill architecture; Authorizing service
connection for “Blue Water” Navy Vietnam veterans who have
one or more diseases on the Agent Orange presumptive list;
Making mandatory arbitration agreements in certain financial
contracts unenforceable under the Service Members Civil Relief
Act; and, Completing final passage of a bill to honor certain
career Reservists as “veterans of the Armed Forces of the United
States.” “Our goal is to have an omnibus bill that this committee,
Democrat and Republican alike, agrees to… [so we can] let our
veterans know that we do want accountability in the VA,” said
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee chair Johnny Isakson (RGa.). “We want the Veterans Choice Program to work. We want
caregivers providing care to those injured prior to 9/11/2001 to
have the same benefits of those afterwards, and all the other
things that we've worked on, and we're close to getting there.”
The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee plans to pass an
omnibus veterans bill by Memorial Day. - See more at: http://
www.moaa.org/Content/Take-Action/Top-Issues/Former-Officers/
MOAA-Testifies-on-VeteranPriorities.aspx#sthash.j2Fw3sLv.dpuf.
Did You Know 4?
March 11, 2016
Survivors of deceased service members are required to forfeit all
or part of their military Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) annuity when
military service results in the death of their sponsor. This is often
referred to as the ”widows' tax.” Retiring service members may
purchase SBP insurance coverage to provide their surviving
spouse up to 55 percent of their retired pay in the event of their
death for any reason. SBP coverage is automatically provided for
deaths that occur on active duty. If death is determined by the VA
to be service-connected, the VA pays the survivor an additional
payment called Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC).
Currently DIC recipients receive $1,254 monthly, or about
$15,000 a year. However, under the current law, the amount of
DIC awarded must be deducted from military SBP annuities. The
widow's tax wipes out most - if not all - of the SBP for the vast
majority of survivors. In multiple Congresses, lawmakers
acknowledged the inequity and co-sponsored corrective
legislation to recognize SBP and DIC are paid for different
reasons. SBP is a service member-purchased annuity, whereas
DIC is an indemnity payment when military service caused the
member's death. Further, service-disabled retirees have limited
opportunities to purchase additional life insurance, (Cont.)
Did You Know 4? (Cont.)
and policies that are available impose exorbitant premiums. No
other federal surviving spouse is required to forfeit his or her
federal annuity because military service caused his or her
sponsor's death. Additionally, the offset does not apply to
surviving military children - only to the spouse. The Veterans
Disability Benefits Commission (VDBC) agreed with MOAA and
other veterans associations that when military service causes the
member's death the VA indemnity compensation should be paid in
addition to the SBP annuity, not subtracted from it. In 2008,
Congress authorized a Special Survivor Indemnity Allowance
(SSIA) as partial recompense for the SBP-DIC inequity. However,
the legal authority to pay SSIA expires on Oct 1, 2017. Unless
Congress repeals the SBP-DIC offset or extends the SSIA
authority this year, SBP-DIC survivors will suffer the additional
loss of the SSIA, totaling $3,700 annually. MOAA believes the
SBP-DIC offset should be repealed. Because of the current
budget environment, securing sufficient funding for a total repeal approximately $6.5 billion - will be difficult. If full and immediate
repeal is not feasible, SSIA should be extended and increased to
continue the path toward phasing out the offset. There are two
current bills that would repeal the widows' tax: H.R. 1594
sponsored by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and S. 979 sponsored
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). See more at: http://www.moaa.org/
Content/Take-Action/Top-Issues/Retirees/Eliminating-theWidows--Tax.aspx#sthash.WC41U5a0.dpuf
New Members: None
May Birthdays:
16 May: Randle Smith
20 May: Alan Kent
29 May: Fred Loughren
29 May: Russell Ramsey
Editor’s Note: If your birthday is not recognized, it is because you did not
include it on your application form. Please contact the Secretary, Malcolm
Johnson at 863-242-9215, and provide the same.
Mike Borders and John Lane with Okeechobee High School
MOAA award winner Cadet Major Karyme Villegas.
PURPOSES OF THE MILITARY OFFICERS
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is a not-forprofit corporation that is operated exclusively to further the
interests of the nation and its uniformed services personnel, their
family members, and survivors.
From the preamble to the Bylaws of The Military Officers
Association of America
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To inculcate and stimulate love of country and flag;
To defend the honor, integrity, and supremacy of our
National
Government and the Constitution of the United States;
To advocate military forces adequate to the defense of
our country;
To foster the integrity and prestige of uniformed service;
To foster fraternal relations between all branches of the
various
Services from which our members are drawn;
To further the education of children of Service personnel;
To aid personnel of the Services from which our
members are
drawn, and their family members and survivors, in every
proper and
legitimate manner; and
To present their rights and interests when Service
matters are under consideration
We unite to form THE MILITARY OFFICERS
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
MOAA Membership is FREE!! Basic membership doesn’t cost a
penny and can be done on line at www.moaa.org. Of course there are
increased benefits and privileges with Regular or Life membership, and
it is strongly encouraged.
Mike presents guest speaker Ron Buckley with a Navy
travel cup.
The Heartlander is published monthly by members of the South Central Florida
Chapter of Military Officers Association of America, P.O. Box 7841, Sebring, FL
33872. The Chapter is an apolitical and not-partisan, non-profit organization
affiliated with National MOAA and the Florida Council of Chapters, MOAA, not
associated with the Department of Defense. The views expressed do not
necessarily reflect the views of MOAA, the Florida Council of Chapters, the
Chapter or DOD.