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Retired Firefighters Refuse To Sign Document Diminishing Their G.E.R.S. Annuities

ST. CROIX -- Davidson Charlemagne tells The Consortium he will not sign a document from the Government Employees' Retirement System that diminishes his annuity payments from a rate of 3 percent to 2.5 percent. "That's not what was agreed upon," he said. "And I'm not going to agree to it. G.E.R.S. had no problem taking my money monthly, but when it's time to pay an agreed upon amount, they're saying something different." Mr. Charlemagne is among 32 other recently retired firefighters who received letters from G.E.R.S. asking that they take a lower rate -- which is generally multiplied by the amount of years a government employee worked, to determine what the monthly retirement payments will be. The lower rate is a result of a new calculation that G.E.R.S. is utilizing, and which has so far only affected the recently retired 33 firefighters. G.E.R.S. is basing its decision to reduce the firefighters annuity payments from 3 to 2.5 percent on Virgin Islands Code, T...