State Employees May Start to Pay into the Florida Retirement System

State employees might have to start paying into the Florida Retirement System. The Florida Senate approved a bill yesterday that would require government employees to pay one-quarter of one percent of their salaries into the FRS. Doug Martin is the Legislative Director for The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Martin says if this legislation becomes a reality, the amount of the tax is sure to increase in the future. The bill was sponsored by Senator JD Alexander. Under his bill, Alexander said an employee with a salary of 30 thousand dollars would end up contributing 75 dollars a year to the pension program. Alexander says that state and local agencies that make up the FRS cannot afford to fund it anymore. But Martin does not think taxing the incomes of state employees is necessary. Senator Al Lawson tried to get rid of the pension contribution in the bill, but the Senate voted against his amendment. The Senate then sent the bill to the House in a 26 to 7 vote. We contacted Senator Alexander, but he was not available for an interview today.

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