Federal Daily News
Coalition urges Congress not to penalize feds to pay for payroll tax extension
A large coalition of federal employee groups last week sent letters to members of Congress assigned to work on a further extension of the payroll tax cut, urging them not to pay for the cut by reducing federal pay and benefits.
The alliance of 29 unions and organizations representing feds sent the Jan. 20 letter to each of the congressional conferees who will be hammering out final legislation that would extend the payroll tax holiday through the rest of 2012. Congress in December passed a short-term extension that expires at the end of February.
The Federal-Postal Coalition, which says it represents an aggregate base of almost 5 million federal and postal workers and retirees, claimed in the letter that “federal employees are being disproportionately targeted in the continuing waves of deficit reduction proposals, and this attitude is now making its way into the debate on extending the payroll tax holiday.”
“Despite popular opinion, federal employees are not immune to the economic woes of this country,” the letter said. “Federal employees are in the second year of a congressionally-mandated pay freeze, a sacrifice which is saving taxpayers $60 billion. Like other Americans, federal and postal employees are suffering from rising health care costs. Their housing values and financial assets have gone down, and they face all of the same challenges as other middle class families in these difficult economic times, including supporting spouses and grown children who are unable to find work.”
The letter also asked the lawmakers to provide a tax credit equal to the payroll tax reduction to federal employees who are under the Civil Service Retirement System—“600,000 Americans, mostly older employees, who in the past have not been eligible for any payroll tax reduction because they pay into a federal retirement system that does not provide Social Security benefits. Excluding certain Americans fails to provide the full economic relief intended by a payroll tax holiday.”
The coalition letter was signed by the American Federation of Government Employees, National Federation of Federal Employees, National Treasury Employees Union, American Postal Workers Union, National Association of Letter Carriers, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Senior Executives Association, Federal Managers Association, National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association and 20 other unions and employee organizations.