Michael Humes

AARP Connecticut offers members terrific year-round opportunities to save money and connect them with people and places in their community while supporting local, nonprofit educational and cultural venues.

The United States has the highest brand-name drug prices in the world and many older residents are increasingly concerned about their ability to pay for their prescription medication. AARP Connecticut will host a live, interactive Telephone Town Hall to discuss the subject with State Senator Matt Lesser and State Representative Sean Scanlon – two Connecticut legislators who are taking on the issue and serve as co-chairs of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee – on Thursday, April 11, at 10 a.m.

Guest story by Frances J. Trelease

Tuition scholarship for AARP members can smooth the path to a second career

by Bernie Weiss

As we approach spring and the second season of 2019, AARP members and their guests are reminded that they can save money on tickets to hear stories by ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the second half of their lives as part of the 2ND ACT speaker series at Waterbury’s Palace Theater.

Connecticut’s manufacturing industry will need an estimated 25,000 to 35,000 new skilled workers for the state’s 4,100 manufacturing companies in the next two decades. Connecticut state colleges and universities, private colleges, and the state’s comprehensive and technical high schools have done a great job of introducing the varied and high-tech career opportunities available to students in the manufacturing industry. However, the growing demand for qualified workers to meet the resurgent manufacturing industry is outpacing the supply, which has created an increasing need for instructors. AARP Connecticut has begun assisting schools in identifying and recruiting retired manufacturers who might consider applying their real world skills in the classroom.

AARP Connecticut went in front of members of the Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee on Friday, March 15, to voice concern about SB 877 (an Act Concerning Revenue Items to Implement the Governor’s Budget), which calls for a repeal of the bipartisan income tax relief promise for social security recipients, and those with pensions and annuity income. Most incumbent legislators of both parties promoted their affirmative vote to repeal this tax during the 2018 campaigns .

Mary Fay, the inaugural Executive Director of the Connecticut Retirement Security Authority (CRSA), recently sat with AARP Connecticut volunteer Tim Ryan to talk about the new program that will offer retirement security to employees who do not have a plan offered by their employer. Fay and Ryan discussed the need for the program, status of the launch and her career history.

AARP is now accepting applications for the 2019 Community Challenge grant program to fund “quick-action” projects that spark change in local communities. The grant program, which is now in its third year, is part of AARP’s nationwide Livable Communities initiative, which aims to make communities great places to live for everyone.