The House overwhelmingly supported a one-time $500 payment to help some retirees with increased expenses rather than provide them an ongoing 1.5 percent cost-of-living allowance. It did so over the objections of Rep. Joshua Adjutant, an Enfield Democrat, who argued the state owes retirees more.
“They have given so much and now they sit in their homes, cutting medications because they can’t afford prescriptions, visiting friends less because they can’t afford the gas, eating less healthfully because the nutritious food they need costs more at their age,” he said “They are the biggest recipients of the pressures of inflation.”
House Bill 1535 went to the House Finance Committee with the cost-of-living allowance. It came out amended to include just the one-time $500 payment for state and municipal retirees who have been retired for at least five years and whose annual salary was $30,000 or less. Proponents of the change cited the more than $70 million price tag of providing the cost-of-living allowance.
Thursday, Rep. William Hatch, a Gorham Democrat, told House members he didn’t disagree with Adjutant but the timing is wrong. He argued for putting off the discussion until next year, when the state writes a new budget.
“The committee voted … to give retirees a benefit of a one-time $500 payment to help them with the current conditions,” Hatch said. “The thought was that maybe they can fill their fuel tank or take care of some other necessities that they’re having hardships with.”
The bill as amended passed, 218-100.