In this Email:

  • Important Announcement
  • A Message From the VRTA President
  • VRTA Member Benefits Information
  • Today's Interest Rates
  • Get your Home and Auto Insurance Quotes
  • What Should We Be Aware of in the 2025 GA Sessions?
  • Important VRTA Dates to Remember

ATTENTION

Due to unforeseen domain access issues, VRTA website has a new web address:  VRTA.US . The VRTA Benefits website remains unchanged at VRTABenefits.org.

 

Please be sure to update your web browser bookmarks to be sure you are using the correct website moving forward. 

 

Also, be sure to notify all your local and district unit members of this change by forwarding this newsletter/email.



January 2025


A Message from YOUR VRTA President, Karen Whetzel -

Moving Forward Together!


HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I can’t believe that six months have gone by since I began my term as VRTA President!  For 2025, I hope to exemplify what AARP Virginia’s state president Joyce Williams (who is also an active VRTA member) mentioned at the VRTA/AARP reception at the VRTA 2024 Fall Conference about the three stages in professional careers:  Learn, Earn, and Return!   


As your President, I want to continue the learn part as well as the return through service as president!  One of the things that I do to learn is attend the quarterly NRTA Advocacy virtual meetings where various state leaders share information and become more knowledgeable on AARP programs!  I have learned that most states have a paid staff; we don’t so your officers, committee chairs, and other leaders who are all volunteers must work harder and hopefully smarter!  NRTA/AARP also sponsor free virtual presentations for all members such as the December 17 one on pensions.  (I was unable to attend as I was judging a science fair at a local high school!)  Check out AARP/NRTA website for more information!  


By the time you read this, registrations for the first VRTA Lobby Day at the General Assembly since the pandemic to be held on Thursday, January 30, 2025, will have been received by Tina Whitaker, VRTA Legislative Co-Chair.  Check last month’s Creekside E-newsletter (archived at vrta.us) if you need to revisit plans for Lobby Day.  I am looking forward to seeing the newly renovated and reopened General Assembly building and many VRTA members at the General Assembly where we will be recognized!  Bea Morris, VRTA Legislative Co-Chair, will be sending out information on bills that VRTA supports or opposes, and will ask VRTA members to take action as needed!  Please read and respond right away to her messages!


Plans are now underway for the VRTA Spring 2025 Delegate Assembly to be held on April 29 and 30, 2025, at the Doubletree in Midlothian, Virginia.  According to our bylaws Article VII Section A: “Voting members of the Delegate Assembly shall be members of the Executive Committee, district presidents, and two delegates from each local unit.   If a local unit has over 100 VRTA members, it shall have an additional delegate for each 50 VRTA members or fraction thereof.  All voting delegates to the Spring Delegate Assembly shall be members of the VRTA.”  (The VRTA bylaws are on the website vrta.us for reference.)  The April meeting will also include speakers, breakout sessions and other opportunities to learn and then return to use the information in your district and/or local unit.  The hotel registration information will be included in next month’s Creekside newsletter.  Please make plans now to select local delegates and attend this important meeting, at which a budget will be adopted and other business will be considered.  A decision on the future of the VRTA print newsletter will be considered!


As always, contact me at kswhetzel@gmail.com, 540-740-8589, or Facebook Karen Whetzel VRTA President if you have questions, suggestions, or concerns!  Thanks to all who support VRTA through your membership and through recruiting new members!  Members are vital as we move forward together!


Our vision: All retired school personnel will be safe, productive, informed and financially secure in retirement.


Our mission: to be the voice, resource, and connection for all retired school personnel.






Karen Whetzel

VRTA President

Phone: 540-740-8589

Email: kswhetzel@gmail.com




Scan the QR code on your smartphone or click it to look at Karen Whetzel's VRTA President's page!

If you ever wonder what it means to have VRTA benefits, visit the website – vrtabenefits.org to see what benefits are available to you.

Phone (540) 722-2529

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540-722-2529 ext.120

genay@creeksideadvisors.net

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Financial Advisory Services


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WHAT SHOULD WE BE AWARE OF IN THE 2025 GA SESSION?


The purpose of the session in odd numbered years is to amend the biennial budget passed the preceding year. Therefore, the Virginia Constitution requires it to be shorter, 30 days instead of 60 days. However, the GA can, and usually does, extend the time to 45 or 46 days, depending on how days are counted. That doesn’t stop the legislators from submitting the two or three thousand bills they submit in the longer session when they craft the two-year budget and have more time to deal with more legislation. Although the session, by law, had to open on January 8, they did very little that day and then recessed until the next week because of severe weather conditions and a problem with water distribution in the whole Richmond area. The intention is still to meet the February 4 Crossover date and adjournment on February 22. That means we need to work quickly.


 Many of the bills introduced will require funding:

  • Improving support for English Language learners and students with disabilities
  • Lifting the Support Cap, a limit on state funding for support staff that cut costs during the Great Recession and was never fully removed
  • Increasing funding to schools deemed “off track” and need “intensive support” by the Board of Education’s new standards
  • Increasing funding for the School-Based Mental Health Program
  • Increasing teachers’ pay to the national average


Also, there are bills and budget amendments that would hinder education funding:

  • Several types of voucher bills – Opportunity Scholarships – The proposal is to spend $50 million on a program that would give $5,000 grants to 10,000 students whose families earn less than 200% of the federal poverty limit or $62,400 for a family of four. The money could be spent on private school tuition, textbooks or other supplies. 
  • A proposal to spend an additional $25 million to increase lab schools
  • Car tax relief in addition to the 900 million the state already spends each year to reimburse localities for the 70% car tax relief (one of the few local taxes) enacted in the late 1990s. The proposal suggests rebates of $150 for drivers who earn less than $50,000 or $300 for joint filers earning below $100,000. The cost to the state would be $1.1 billion.  
  • Standard personal income tax deduction. The deduction was raised this year to $8,5000 for individuals and $17,000 for couples filing jointly. Those levels are set to expire on January 1, 2026, which would boost the state coffers by $557 million that first year and $1.2 billion the next year. Gov. Youngkin’s projections show state revenue running $4.7 billion forecasts through the end of the next fiscal year, an amount that he says could pay for tax reductions.
  • Elimination of tax on tips, which would cost $70 million a year.


There are many other demands on the state budget that the legislature will also have to consider such as transportation, mental health, public safety, etc. The big question is what might happen on the federal level that could have great fiscal repercussions in Virginia. Many civil service employees work in northern Virginia and Tidewater. If many of those jobs are eliminated in a restructuring, the entire state would suffer.


Don’t forget that VRTA Lobby Day is Thursday, January 30. If you haven’t registered with Tina Whitaker (lucy7232@aol.com or 804-798-1441), please contact her as soon as possible. If you can’t go to Richmond, you can still voice your concerns by emailing or calling your senator and delegate. Tina and I would like to know who your senator and delegate are. The Legislative Liaison form is on the VRTA website (www.vrta.us) and you may send that information to either of us by email or phone. We especially need to know if your legislators are on the Education or Appropriations/Finance committees.


During the session, information on specific bills will be sent to my email list I have had in the past. Let me know if you are not on the list and would like to be added. Please check your email every day.  






Bea Morris

VRTA Legislative Co-Chairperson

Email: beam1340@verizon.net 

Important VRTA Dates to Remember


Thursday, January 30, 2025: In-person Lobby DAY in Richmond


Saturday, March 1, 2025: Deadline for submitting applications for new units or districts to join VRTA IRS umbrella.


Saturday, March 1, 2025: Deadline for submitting name/address changes for IRS e-file contact person to VRTA Treasurer who reports to IRS.


Monday, March 10, 2025: Deadline for Spring Newsletter articles


Tuesday, April 29, and Wednesday, April 30, 2025 - VRTA Spring Delegate Assembly at the Doubletree by Hilton in Midlothian, VA.