The Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee on Wednesday (April 1) approved the FY27 $12.4 billion Education Trust Fund budget package, adding a one-time bonus for education retirees equal to $1 per month for each year of service.
That means a retiree who worked 25 years would receive a total of $300, or $25 per month, before taxes. The House did not include any bonus funding for retirees in its version of the education budget package.
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The Senate committee also approved a $32.3 million allocation to pay for that bonus as part of the $10.5 billion Education Trust Fund budget, with funding not coming directly from the budget, but from any excess tax revenue at the end of the 2026 fiscal year, which is Sept. 30.
Senate Bill 380, sponsored by Education Budget Chairman Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, appears to be in lieu of the cost-of-living adjustment education retirees have been asking for, but officials say they are grateful for the bonus.
“We’re very appreciative,” Alabama Education Retirees Association Executive Director Wendy Lang told Alabama Daily News. “We were hoping for more, but we will continue to push toward our ultimate goal: a substantial COLA.”
Lawmakers have given education retirees one-time bonuses in three separate years, but they have not received a COLA since 2007.
In 2008 and 2022, education retirees received a one-time bonus equal to $2 per month for each year of service. In 2018, they received a one-time bonus of $1 per month for each year of service.
According to the AERA, more than 60,000 of the 100,000 retired education employees have income that places them at or below the federal poverty level.
Teacher Retirement System officials told ADN that a 1% COLA increase would cost roughly an additional $27 million per year or as much as $254 million to prefund the total increase.
According to a social media post, about 300 education retirees met with their legislators at the State House on Tuesday, rallying for a COLA increase.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Trisha Powell Crain and originally published by the Alabama Daily News.
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