FROM THE

NATIONAL PRESIDENT
I
have written many times about
this issue at tax time. Just about
every year someone will email
or call that their particular state
is attempting to tax their railroad
ret i rement
a n n u i t y .
The Railroad
Reti rement
Act prohibits
states from
t a x i n g
r a i l r o a d
ret i rement
annuities. The State of Michigan
was the last state to attempt this
in 2012. Through the work of the
National Legislative Director who
National Association of Retired
& Veteran Railway Employees, Inc.
Published ten times a year Cost Membership in a Unit or Membership-at-Large
resides in Michigan and the Railroad
Retirement Board this attempt was
quashed in its infancy. (with a
ruling from revenue authorities in
Michigan that our annuities were
not taxable). Railroad Retirement
benets are only taxable on the
Federal level.
The history
of this non
taxation by
st at es has
been litigated
in the State
of Minnesota
back in 1988
and 1989 in
what is known as the Jaeb case. A
decision was handed down on May
2, 1989 in Minnesota Tax Court in
the favor of the Appellants Robert E.
Jaeb and Mary Jaeb. The arguments
of the Appellants was based on
Federal statute U.S. Code 45, Section
231m of the Railroad Retirement
Act stating notwithstanding any
other law of the United States, or
of any State, territory, or the
District of Columbia, no annuity
or supplemental annuity shall be
assignable or be subject to any tax,
or to garnishment, attachment,
or other legal process under any
circumstances whatsoever, nor
shall the payment thereof be
anticipated.
Many tax preparers are unaware
that there is a statute prohibiting
taxation by states on railroad
retirement annuities. Many of us
have friends, close associates or
even family that prepare tax returns
and fail to recognize this statute.
The Attorney General at the time
would not even defend the state in
court because of the statute so they
employed outside counsel. Be aware
of your state and attempts to tax our
annuities.
Tom Dwyer,
National President
continued on page 3
Many t ax preparers are
unaware that there is a statute
prohibiting taxation by states on
railroad retirement annuities.
T
he House & Senate passed the
full Omnibus Appropriations
bill and Amtrak funding
actually improved by 3.4%, when
considering increases in capitol
budgets and reductions in operating
expenditures. High speed rail was
zeroed out, as expected, hurting
California projects at a crucial
time, but federal transit programs
received reasonable funding for
core programs which originated
in the Senate last year under the
surface transportation legislation
(MAP-21). That bill provided funding
in a bipartisan measure that was
targeted to investments, and this
omnibus appropriations bill keeps
that funding at current levels which
is higher than what was originally
appropriated by the House. The
From the National
Legislative Director
idea in this round of funding was to
not disrupt funding for innovative
projects such as New Starts
and general funding for Capitol
Investment Grants. The legislation
language sought to keep research
funded without adversely affecting
new transit projects already started
under MAP-21. Federal dollars were
not increased for the implementation
of Positive Train Control (PTC),
which was mandated by law under
the 2008 Passenger Rail Investment
and Improvement Act (PRIIA). The
Omnibus package increases federal
funding for popular transportation
investments that cover projects on
all modes of travel and commerce,
and that subject has been the focus
in many committee discussions,
especi al l y wi t hi n t he House
Transportation & Infrastructure
(T&I) Committee.
NARVRE NEWSLETTER MARCH 2014 VOL. 28 NO. 03
NARVRE National Offce
509 W Reed St Moberly, MO 65270
Phone: 660/269-8895 Fax: 660/269-8896 Toll Free: 1-800-551-2588
SINCE 1937
Email: NARVRE@gmail.com WEBSITE: www.narvre.info
In
Memory of...
Mr. Elijah James (E.J.) Williford, Sr.,
who passed away January 12, 2014
at the age of 90. E.J. was President
of Unit #95, Kansas City, Missouri for
over 20 Years and was instrumental
in the establishment of many new
Units in Illinois, Missouri and Indiana.
He was a Leader, Mentor and Good
Friend to many and his dynamic
personality will be greatly missed.
Again Thank You... As Ever... Joyce Manning
From the National
Secretary-Treasurer
H
appy to say the Convention
plans are going well. We
have been coordinating with
Tom Dwyer and the Host Unit
065 Sacramento/Roseville CA and
Jackie Kuehl, the Chairperson.
She has planned and organized an
exciting event for Monday nights
banquet and train trip.
ATTENTION: All Units, Please
get your ofcer election forms and
delegate appointment forms to the
National Ofce as soon as possible.
We are working to get the new 2014
directory ready to print and will have
available it at the Convention. If
your unit does not have a delegate
we will send the New Directory to
your unit after the convention is over
along with all other updates and
minutes from the convention. Also
make sure that the Audit form for
2013 is sent along with the 990-N
epostcard acceptance from the IRS.
This is a very important report that
is required annually of each unit.
Call the National Ofce if you have
problems getting this report taken
care of on your computer.
I will be sending the new proposed
Bylaw changes and any Resolutions
2
From the National
Vice President
P
ast Area 6 Director ROGER
BARR honored by NARVRE
and Whitey Westphal for many
years of dedicated service as Area
Director. Roger continues to service
in Unit 140, Topeka, Kansas as
Legislative Representative as well
as in the Kansas State Legislative
Committee. Thank You Roger for
your many years service, NARVRE
truly appreciates all your efforts.
AREA 7 needs an area Director.
Area 7, North Western United States
needs a dedicated NARVRE member
who wants to see that area grow.
The candidate should be computer
literate, able to travel when required,
be able to speak for the betterment
of NARVRE and work in a team
atmosphere. Contact Lester Newton
at 319-283-0797 if interested.
By now, if someone you know hasnt
to each unit that has a delegate
so your delegate will know how
your unit wishes to vote at the
Convention.
Each delegate will receive a packet
of materials when he admits his or
her Credentials to the convention
registrar s table. Committee s
will meet on Sunday morning at
10:00AM and the General Meeting
for 2:00PM will be speakers from
U. S. Retirement Board, Geraldine
Clark; Palmetto GBA, Jennifer
Johnson;
United Health Care, Charlene E.
Payne; Parliamentarian, Lorraine
Talbot; and Consolidated Association
of Railroad Employees (CARE),
Kathy Hampton.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014, Banquet
speaker will be Walter A. Barrows
from Labor Member U. S. Railroad
Retirement Board.
Units If you have not forwarded
your of ficer election forms to
National, please do so as soon as
possible, we are in the process of
updating the new Directory of Units
and need this information.
Be sure to update address, phone
and e-mail also.
Joyce A. Burton
National Sec/Treas
received their NARVRE Newsletter,
its most likely because they havent
paid their 2014 dues. February
28th. is the date line, or cut-off
for members being delinquent, if
their dues havent been paid. Last
year in October, we had 1,859
local Unit members who had not
paid their dues. I ask all Units
and their Ofcer Staff to look over
their rosters and make a concerted
effort to contact those members
who havent paid their dues by this
time. None of us are getting any
younger and some of these might
just be an oversight. I feel I need to
remind all NARVRE Units: Its your
responsibility to grow your Unit.
The loss of 1,859 members due to
just plain delinquency and no-one
really knowing why is unacceptable!
We are trying to grow NARVRE,
a loss like this will take years to
recoverable.
Are you ambitions? Would you
like to be a National Ofcer? Our
Convention is just around the
corner. (May 18th. - 20th. at the
Old Town Sacramento Embassy
Suites Hotel) You should make
your desires known by calling the
NARVRE National Ofce 1-800-551-
2588 and talk to Joyce. If youre
going to the Convention and havent
made your Hotel reservation yet,
April 26th. is the deadline. If you
need more information about the
convention, visit www.narvre65.org.
Lester Newton
NVP-NARVRE
Roger Barr Retirement
3
From Palmetto, GBA
continued on page 4
(National Legislative
Director from page 1)
Recently, at an annual conference
of Mayors, Rep. Bill Shuster (Chrm,
House T&I Comm.) asked for
help in educating members of
Congress on the absolute need
for compromise in order to approve
a new surface transportation bill.
This new chairman stated that some
Republican members in Congress
have a reluctance to think that
the federal government has a role
to play, or that they shouldnt be
spending federal money. He also
said that some Democrats have a
reluctance to streamline projects in
the eld to get them done quicker,
and emphasized his point that time
is money. This speech followed the
T&I Committees rst hearing on the
FY14 surface transportation bill,
where specic discussion was on the
Chairmans point of time and money.
Specically, they must deal with a
current surface transportation bill
(MAP-21) that is scheduled to expire
on October 1, and a transportation
trust fund that is rapidly running
through the revenue collected by
an inadequate federal gas tax (18.4
cents-per-gallon). Shuster did not
offer any new sources for funding,
but he was adamant on the need to
do more with the money available
from the Highway Trust Fund. The
T&I Committee has also established
another new panel for the opportunity
of new ideas on public-private
partnerships (P3s) across all modes
of transportation, and to examine
funding of infrastructure projects
that have been ignored for to many
years. While we favor the promising
statements from the committees
leadership in both parties, NARVRE
will be paying special attention
to any suggestion concerning
railroad projects because of harmful
proposals in past hearings chaired
by Rep. Shusters predecessor.
Per sonal t hought s on t he
impending shortfall of the Highway
Trust Fund (HTF) were recently
pointed out by Amtrak President
and CEO Joe Boardman who stated
that the depleting highway and
transit funding accounts should
be replaced, and he also added
that the MAP-21 transportation
bill is currently underfunded. He
expressed his thoughts that the
impending bankruptcy of the HTF
will be just the tip of the iceberg,
but added if we strive in good
faith, we can nd a way through
to a solution that will give America
what it needs. He suggested
that Congress should scrap the
gas tax in favor of a balanced
surface transportation investment
program that can invest in any
surface mode. Everyone involved
seems to agree that transportation
revenues are running dry, so most
committee hearings and other
discussion panels are looking at new
innovative investments. Well remain
optimistic, yet we can remember
back to 2010 when we were reporting
in this Newsletter on bipartisan
emergency meetings with a panel of
80 transportation experts, led by two
former secretaries of transportation,
Samuel Skinner and Norm Mineta.
The discussions on specic issues
back then cited a transportation
system in dire straights with
outdated infrastructure problems
that were decaying rapidly, and ,
of course, funding levels that were
woefully inadequate. Unfortunately,
those issues were not dealt with, and
the problems are now bigger and will
cost more federal dollars. We shall
keep watch on proceedings in Chrm.
Shusters committee and hope they
will agree to pass legislation that will
produce some worthwhile action.
Doc-Fix Update: (Reported by
MedPage). There is an apparent
agreement with Democrats and
Republicans of three committees
whereby Medicare physicians will
get a 0.5% pay increase each year
for 5 years. Bipartisan teams in
the House & Senate have agreed
to repeal the sustainable growth
rate (SGR) formula for physician
payment and reimbursement under
Medicare. This bill will need the
approval of both chambers and
the nal costs must still be worked
out. The reason for the 5 years of a
0.5% payment increase is designed
to provide payment stability and
help physicians transition to new
models of care. Apparently, these
legislators (mostly staff) have found
areas of compromise, which is
promising. We will report more
on this long overdue doc-x when
detailed summaries are released.
Gary M. Faley
Legislative Director
Why My Claim May Be Selected
For Medical Review
A
s part of Palmetto GBAs role as the Railroad Medicare Specialty Administrative
Contractor (RRB-SMAC), we are charged with examining the reasonableness
and medical necessity of the services being billed. This process is called
Medical Review. Because Medicare processes millions of claims each year, it isnt
feasible to look at every single claim providers submit. Instead, Medicare and Railroad
Medicare use data analysis and information from other Medicare Contractors to fnd
claim types that have high billing error rates.
Billing errors can mean the claims are not fled correctly, the services were not
reasonable and clinically medically necessary, or the services have not been documented
correctly to meet Medicares guidelines. Medicare employs several contractors to do
this function, such as the CERT (Comprehensive Error Rate Testing contractor), the
RAC (Recovery Audit Contractor), the ZPIC (Zone Program Integrity Contractor), as
well as the Medical Review units at each local Medicare contractor, including Railroad
Medicare.
The Medical Review process works like this: the contractor conducts data analysis
and creates an action plan outlining what types and how many claims the unit proposes
to take on for the year. The plan is approved by the Centers or Medicare and Medicaid
(CMS) or the Railroad Retirement Board (this is necessary for the RRB-SMAC). Some
of the topics our Medical Review unit examined in the past year were:
NON-PROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
KANSAS CITY, KS
PERMIT NO. 522
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RETIRED
AND VETERAN RAILWAY EMPLOYEES, INC.
509 W REED ST
Moberly, MO 65270
MARCH 2014
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
NARVRE NEWSLETTER
Volume 28 Number 03
National President
Thomas Dwyer
11304 Norway St. NW
Coon Rapids MN 55448-3269
763-757-1501 FAX 763-767-5794
tdwyertcu@aol.com
National Vice President
Lester Newton
623 5th Ave SW
Oelwein IA 50662-2721
Offce Phone: 319-283-3330
Cell: 319-283-0797
Fax: 319-283-3330
Lsnewton@Mchsi.com
National Secretary-Treasurer
Joyce A. Burton
509 W Reed St
Moberly, MO 65270
660-269-8895
narvre@gmail.com
National Legislative Director
Gary M Faley
6324 Calkins Road
Flint, MI 48532-3207
810-733-7256
faleyg@comcast.net
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