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Village of Bald Head Island Employee Newsletter

Second Quarter 2022

VOTE ON SOCIAL SECURITY PARTICIPATION TO TAKE PLACE ON SEPTEMBER 21, 2022

At its June 17, 2022, Village Council meeting, the Council unanimously adopted a resolution expressing its intent and agreement to provide for coverage of retirement coverage groups of employees under the old age, survivors, and disability insurance provisions of Title II of the Federal Social Security Act. The resolution stated, "it is the opinion of the Village Council that extension of Social Security coverage will be of great benefit not only to current employees but also to the Village Administration, by allowing it to attract and enabling it to retain the best personnel." In order for the coverage to begin, a majority of Village employees must vote in favor of receiving the coverage. Mark your calendars for September 21, 2022, this is the day that every eligible employee will cast their vote. If a majority of employees vote in favor of participating, the effective date of participation will be January 11, 2023. If the majority vote is not in favor of participating, no FT employee will be allowed to participate.

All Village employees received an email from Human Resources on June 20th announcing the passage of the Village’s resolution and providing employees with a few documents to review. If you are reading the electronic version of this newsletter, you can find those documents by clicking on the links below. If you are reading a hard copy, you can flip to the back of the newsletter to find these.

SSI for Local Government Employees

Signed

Windfall Elimination

Signed Notification

PowerPoint

Some steps you may want to take to help decide what is best for you:

View your earnings history on the Social Security webpage (www.ssa.gov/myaccount) and use the Plan for Retirement tool to see how much you could receive each month from Social Security.

If you have 40 or more credits, use the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offsets (GPO) calculators to determine the decrease in the amount you and your survivors will receive if the Village does not opt-in to the program. (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/calculators/)

Check your LGERS retirement estimated benefit amount (you will need this for the GPO/WEP calculators).

Check your 401k to see what your estimated benefits are from that retirement source. Check all other savings and retirement mechanisms and portfolios to see what difference opting in or out will make in the bottom line for your retirement. Discuss this with your spouse and consider your other survivors or beneficiaries. If you have a financial planner, this person should also be consulted for advice.

Stay tuned for more information from Human Resources as we get closer to the September 21st voting date.

Chief May thanked everyone for a successful Public Safety Day He said that he received several positive comments. He indicated that Corporal Paul Homick did a fantastic job putting the event together

6/17/2022 Village Council Meeting

That's the cost of smoking a pack a day, not to mention other potential future health costs ... if you smoke, there's got to be a better way to spend that money, right? Think about what an extra $2,300 this year could mean. A needed home improvement project? A new top shelf entertainment center? Or maybe just some extra savings set aside for a rainy day?

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) is now offering the Pivot program for tobacco cessation – which you are eligible for at no charge as part of your plan – to help our members reduce and ultimately quit smoking. Pivot, a personalized and clinically-proven program, can get you started on spending less on cigarettes and saving more.

Pivot includes an app that allows you to interact with a health coach and online community, free nicotine replacement therapy and the Pivot breath sensor — which measures the level of carbon monoxide in your breath. You can opt-out of the program at any time by simply deleting the app from your mobile device.

For those who prefer a telephone-based program, Blue Cross NC continues to offer QuitlineNC. Available 24x7, QuitlineNC quit coaches offer support and resources including nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products like patches, gum and lozenges at no extra cost. Call QuitlineNC today at 1-844-8NCQUIT (1-844-862-7848).