ALSBers'
 
YIPES! Is the following true? If so it seems a worthy thing to write our
Congresspersons about! And fast!!
 
 
>
>Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 15:04:24 -0900
>
>Please distribute this message widely!
>
>Dear Colleagues:
>
>Many of us who work and play in the US academic setting have most if not
>all of our retirement savings tied up with TIAA-CREF.  Apparently the
>republicans in Washington have decided to get into the tax and spend game
>by revoking the tax-exempt status of TIAA-CREF.  This would apparently make
>TIAA-CREF the only pension organization in the country that is taxed.
>
>Please contact your congressional representatives immediately and let them
>know this is not an acceptable policy change.  Complete details from
>TIAA-CREF are attached, and links to congressional e-mail directories are
>available at the TIAA-CREF web address at the end of this message
>
>Important Message for TIAA-CREF Participants
>
>     On Monday, June 9, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee
>offered a package of tax-relief proposals, one provision of which would
>revoke the tax-exempt status TIAA-CREF has held since its founding in 1918.
>
>     The Tax Act of 1986 imposed a tax on TIAA-CREF's non-pension business
>but reaffirmed the exemption of TIAA-CREF's pension business. The House
>proposal would reverse this careful and deliberate decision reached in
>1986.
>
>     TIAA-CREF is the principal retirement system for most of the colleges
>and universities -- public and private, undergraduate as well as graduate
>-- in the United States. Revoking the company's tax-exempt status will
>materially and adversely affect the pensions of nearly two million people
>in the education community -- teachers, researchers, administrators, and
>staff across the nation. The proposal seems essentially punitive, in that
>it would reduce the income of retired educators by as much as 3 to 5
>percent annually -- in effect, like imposing a 3 to 5 percent decrease in
>benefits to recipients of Social Security.
>
>     Retirement savings are now tax-exempt for all workers. To impose a tax
>arbitrarily only on the retirement plan for the academic community is
>unfair. Further, it is simply bad public policy to discourage commitment to
>the profession of teaching -- and diametrically opposed to current
>bipartisan efforts to improve educational opportunities for our nation's
>youth.
>
>     We urge TIAA-CREF participants and administrators of our participating
>institutions to contact their Congresspersons immediately (see below). Tell
>them what revoking TIAA-CREF's tax exemption would mean, and ask for their
>help in defeating the proposal. And please write or call Representative
>Bill Archer, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means to let him
>know what this most unfortunate proposal would cost you and your families.
>
>
>http://www.tiaa-cref.org/message.html
>
>********************************************************************
>Jim Goes                    + Internet: [log in to unmask]
>Business and Public Admin   + Phone:    (907) 465-6344
>University of Alaska        + FAX:      (907) 465-6383
>
>
>-----------
>Theodore Hodapp, Ph.D.                 Email:       [log in to unmask]
>Hamline University, Physics Department Phone:   **NEW**  (612) 523-2293
>1536 Hewitt Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104   Fax:     **NEW**  (612) 523-2956
>                                       http://www.hamline.edu/~thodapp/
>
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Professor Keith A. Maxwell            |  Voice:          206 756 3703
Legal and Ethical Studies             |  Fax:            206 756 3500
University of Puget Sound             |  Internet:    [log in to unmask]
 
Tacoma, WA 98416                      |