The TEXPERS Blog

New website tool helps you 

advocate for public pensions

By Allen Jones, TEXPERS Communications Manager

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The Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems has a new easy-to-use and powerful tool to help its members communicate with their legislators at the state and federal level.

TEXPERS Advocacy is a new website feature on the association’s website at www.texpers.org that allows you to participate in pension-focused legislative advocacy campaigns and engage with public officials. Now, you can easily track pension legislation, find out the association’s stance on important issues, gain an in-depth insight into important topics, as well as look up your political leaders and directly communicate with them.

TEXPERS has contracted with VoterVoice, a government relations software company, to improve the way the association and its members engage with government. In establishing our new site tool, TEXPERS Advocacy, members have the power to influence their political leaders on the importance of securing retirement incomes for police officers, firefighters, municipal employees, and other dedicated public workers throughout the state.

Leaders of public pension systems, their active and retired stakeholders, as well as those who provide plans with supportive services, face a growing number of serious challenges posed by an increasingly uncertain, rapidly changing, complex and difficult policy and investment environment. As retirement security becomes one of the defining issues of the 21^st century, it is important for public officials to receive accurate information regarding the impact any proposed legislation could have on the retirement benefits of their hard-working constituents.

Pension plan trustees and administrators are encouraged to visit the TEXPERS website, click on the “TEXPERS Advocacy” link at the top of the home page, and utilize this new tool now as Texas convenes its 86^th legislative session. On the site, you can check for active grassroots advocacy campaigns lead by TEXPERS, sign up for e-mail and text message alerts, find legislation, view current key legislation impacting public pensions, and find politicians that represent you.

Through TEXPERS Advocacy campaigns, the association informs you of the impact of harmful or helpful pension legislation, provides you with contact information of your political leaders and helps you frame your message through email, phone calls, letters and social media for maximum influence. TEXPERS staff can use the tool to keep track of member interactions with political leaders and find out in which part of the state some extra grassroots advocacy may be needed.

The new tool also helps TEXPERS keep you better informed by providing new streamlined calls to action, the ability to better survey its members to gain a consensus on topics, create petitions, automatically maintain up-to-date bill information, and other messaging opportunities. The site also allows TEXPERS to keep a score card on legislators to help inform members how their political leaders are voting on retirement security for public employees.

The same tool can be utilized at the federal level, offering TEXPERS members a greater national voice in public employee retirement. Use the tool to look up national government leaders, learn more about federal pension legislation and find how to message public officials. TEXPERS Advocacy empowers its members to be more effective in their engagements with government and is accessible on computers, tablets and mobile phones.