Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Pensions! As we do most weeks, we have gathered the best stories about pensions and retirement security from the previous week. This is the news you need to know in the fight for a secure retirement.

Here are this week’s top stories:

Cost-of-living increase for NH retirees passed by Senate by Kevin Landrigan. Yesterday, the New Hampshire State Senate passed a much-needed COLA bill for public employee retirees. The bill, HB616-FN, provides a 1.5 percent COLA and is the first in nearly a decade. The New Hampshire Retirement Security Coalition, NPPC’s coalition in-state, stated in the article that 80 percent of the economic benefit from this COLA would remain in New Hampshire.

Texas legislators consider teacher pension solutions, one-time relief checks by Kathleen Witte. This week, the Texas House of Representatives voted to move legislation forward that would help make the Teacher Retirement System pension fund financially healthy. The bill, SB 12, would also provide much-needed one-time checks to retired teachers. Often referred to as “13th checks,” these additional benefits help retirees offset the cost of rising inflation.

Gov. Laura Kelly signs $18 billion budget, vetoes unscheduled pension contribution by Tim Carpenter. Marking an end to the legislative session in Kansas, Governor Kelly signed the budget presented to her by the legislature, but with a few tweaks of her own. Earlier in the year, the legislature passed a bill that provided an additional $115 million to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) – money that was borrowed from KPERS in earlier years under the Brownback Administration to offset his unfounded tax policies. The Governor signed that legislation. In their budget, the legislature provided an unscheduled payment of $51 million to KPERS. This week, Kelly vetoed that extra payment to free up funds for other projects. Keeping the Kansas Promise (KKP), NPPC’s coalition in-state, was in support of the veto.

Be sure to check back next week for the latest news in the fight for a secure retirement!