Political Action Committee (PAC)

PPSLA represents it's membership through an established Political Action Committee (PAC) fund, and we are urging each member to contribute a small amount of money to it each month for some of the following reasons:

1. To protect DROP, as it is under attack by some of our state legislators and may not last without political intervention.  HB2144 is just one of what we believe to be the first of many legislative attempts to end DROP.  HB2144 has language that would end DROP in 2008.  For more information, log on to www.azpolice.org.  
2. To protect your pension, as it too may be a risk.  In fact, the Fire union (IAFF) established an emergency "save your pension” fund to fend off the fight they believe is coming to Arizona very soon.  PLEA has also reached out to their membership to increase their PAC fund for the same reason.  Currently, we enjoy a defined benefit pension, i.e., one based on your top three years of service.   You probably heard about the public safety pension battles in Alaska, California, and Virginia.  All faced huge fights to protect their pensions from being converted to a defined contribution or 401K-type plan.  Large public safety PAC funds helped derail the legislation in California and Virginia, but Alaska lost their benefit.   
3. To protect other critical rights and benefits and fend off future legislative attempts to reduce them.  Nearly 200 bills were introduced in the legislature this year and about a quarter of them were directly related to public safety issues.   

Virtually every decision impacting your wages, fringe benefits, employee rights, working conditions, retirement, and pension is decided by politicians, e.g., City Council, State Legislators, and the Governor.  Although we may not like the term special interest group, the fact is PPSLA is one.  We are concerned about the interests of our members, e.g., maintaining DROP, protecting our pension, and maintaining other hard earned benefits.  Indeed, power and influence is generated from a well-funded PAC fund.   

We would be naïve to believe that politicians pass legislation just because they like police.  Quite the contrary, politicians pass legislation for special interest groups that help them get elected and remain in power.   The following three prongs influence legislators in this order:

1. Money, i.e., PAC funds
2. Volunteers to work their campaigns
3. Votes 

PPSLA has worked diligently with the Arizona Police Association (APA) to help educate our members about which politicians support public safety, as well as get volunteers to assist in political campaigns.  Unfortunately, this has not been enough.  It's time to take the next step, raise money, and help those who help us get what we deserve and keep what we have!  We (police) have three times the IAFF"s numbers, but they out spend us in all three areas above. 

No more complacency!  We are asking you to contribute $15.00 per month.  Is your pension worth a contribution of less than 50 cents per day?  PPSLA PAC money collected will be used to support candidates that support public safety interests.  Your Executive Board feels so strongly about this issue that each one of us has agreed personally to contribute this amount.

INSTRUCTIONS:

To begin contributing to the PPSLA PAC fund, complete the auto deduction card and return it to the PPSLA office today.  Since the PAC fund is completely separate from your monthly dues, you will need to add the amount that you would like to contribute to the PAC fund to your monthly dues amount of $38.07, e.g., to contribute $15.00 to the PAC, you would enter $53.07 in the deduction amount box.

Any contribution is greatly appreciated, and if you should have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, feel free to contact anyone from the PPSLA Executive Board.

• Auto deduction card