AUGUSTA The Maine House and Senate voted March 11 to advance a bill sponsored by Representative Scott Cuddy, D-Winterport, ensuring certain educational technicians are not required to pay into the Maine Public Employee Retirement System (MePERS) and can instead collect social security, according to a March 15 news release.
“Maine faces a shortage of educational technicians,” said Rep. Cuddy. “Fortunately, not all of these positions require certification for them to work. That is true for people at the first level of ed tech authorization. These folks, who often work other jobs that already allow them to collect social security, should also be allowed to do so as ed techs. We need to be streamlining employment opportunities for these critical workers instead of making their benefit system more complex and cumbersome.