We want to extend to each of you and your families our best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and safe New Year. As 2011 comes to a close it makes one wonder where all the time goes. It just seems like yesterday that we heard all the hype regarding the Millennium, the year 2000 and the various predictions. Reading the definition of millennium in the dictionary would cause some excitement. Millennium: "The space of 1000 years, especially that period during which Satan will be bound and Christ will reign on earth Rev. xx1-4." We did however rejoice that the computers didn't fail and the clocks didn't stop. Business went on as usual.

I hope this Newsletter arrives in time to remind those of you who are not attending the Christmas Luncheon that the Luncheon is always held in place of the December meeting.

As we come to the end of another year I want to thank all of you for your membership in the RFFOW. I want to thank those of you who have made a donation to our Legislative Fund this year and those of you who attend our regular monthly meetings. This is what keeps the RFFOW one of the strongest retiree organizations in the State. Your contributions provide the resources and the inspiration for us to continue in the fashion and high standards of our predecessors. I also want to thank Ray Sanderson for his many contributions and for his articles in our monthly Newsletter. Last but not least I want to thank our Board of Directors and our Executive Assistant Monica Blum for their time and efforts. Our Directors are not compensated and donate many hours of their time and knowledge in our best interests.

I am pleased to announce that the four Directors whose terms of office were up in December all agreed to run for reelection for another two year term and they were all reelected. The four Directors are:

• John Church
  Seattle Fire Department
• Bob Fuhrman
  Tacoma Fire Department
• Randy Plain
  Tacoma Fire Department
• Bill Roberts
  Tacoma Fire Department

The Special Session of the Legislature was called to order on Monday November 28, 2011. The Governor was forced to call the Special Session to cut an additional 2 billion dollars in the State's 32.2 billion dollar budget. Governor Gregoire proposed asking the voters to approve a half cent increase in the sales tax which would generate 500 million dollars in the next fiscal year. Any increases in taxes would have to be approved by two-thirds vote of the legislators or approved by the voters.

Recent polls indicate an even split of the voters on a sales tax increase. The reasons for the deficit and the solutions differ depending whom you are talking to.

One legislator insists that the State budget has increased by eighty percent over the last twelve years while the inflation rate increase has been about forty-three percent. Someone on the radio said that on the federal level you can raise the amount of tax paid by G.E. by 70 %, but 70% of zero is zero. I have always felt that if you raise the taxes on the owner of the bakery, he increases the price of a loaf of bread. In some cases if the tax increase equals 3 cents a loaf they raise the price of a loaf of bread by 4 cents. So who gets hurt? The low income and middle class consumer.

The Governor has proposed substantial cuts in LEOFF 2 pension contributions. These same cuts were included in HB 2068 last session, but due to the excellent effort of the Washington State Council of Firefighters (WSCFF) and WACOPS, the bill did not pass. We were told that the introduction of HB 2068 was the reason HB 2097 to merge LEOFF 1 and LEOFF 2 was put forth by the WSCFF and WACOPS. Keep in mind that when HB 2068 was defeated there was no effort by either group to stop HB 2097. If it had not been for the efforts of the LEOFF1 groups and the LEOFF 1 members the bill may have passed. The point is, now the LEOFF 2 cuts are in the Governor's supplemental budget. If the Governor's supplemental budget is passed with the LEOFF 2 contribution reduction during this November Special Session we may see another push for the merger of LEOFF 1 and LEOFF 2. This will largely depend on what is in the merger study that will be presented to the legislature on December 15, 2011 by the State Actuary.

The Actuary will give a preliminary merger study report to the Select Committee on Pension Policy on December 13, 2011.

The Retired Firefighters of Washington, the Retired Seattle Police Officers Association and the Washington State Retired Police Officers Association have submitted a 7 page document that the Ac tuary has agreed to include as an addendum to the merger study report. The document is too long to put in the Newsletter so we will try to send it to you in a special mailing.

Please be prepared to contact your legislators if there is another attempt to merge the two pension systems during the special or regular legislative sessions. Happy Holidays!