LANSING, MI -- More than 50 teachers on Tuesday marched outside Gov. Rick Snyder's capitol office, asking him to stop a legal appeal over a 3 percent contribution to retiree health care.
The case stems from a 2010 law signed by Snyder's predecessor, former Gov. Jennifer Granholm. That law required teachers to contribute 3 percent of their salaries toward retiree health care. That three percent was collected from July 2010 to Jan. 2013 before a legal battle threw the money into escrow. It now tops $550 million.
"I'm angry that the state of Michigan and Governor Snyder are standing between us and our hard-earned money," said Patti McCoin, a Detroit teacher.
The Michigan Education Association and American Federation of Teachers have fought in court for years to get that money returned to teachers. A June 7 ruling from the Court of Appeals ordered just that, but Snyder plans to appeal that ruling to the Michigan Supreme Court.
"This law was originally put in place to sustain an unsustainable liability, by requiring public school employees to contribute a small portion of income toward their retiree healthcare instead of taxpayers fully funding it," said Snyder spokesperson Anna Heaton.
"If school employees do not contribute toward their retirement health care, the funding for the system will have to come from other district resources, either the from the classroom or directly from taxpayers so that districts can balance their budget."
Attorney General Bill Schuette recently dropped out of the case, leaving Snyder to pursue it on his own.
Cheryl Farver, a recently-retired social worker from the Shiawassee Regional Education Service District, said she had to pay in regardless of the fact that she wasn't getting health care from the district while working or in retirement.
"As a retiree on a fixed income, the 3 percent of my paychecks that was stolen from me is very important to my husband and I," Farver said.
Snyder was not actually in his office as the protest unfolded, a spokesperson said. His office plans to file an appeal to the lawsuit on Tuesday afternoon.
Emily Lawler is a Capitol reporter on MLive's statewide Impact Team. You can reach her at elawler@mlive.com, subscribe to her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter: @emilyjanelawler.