AFSA's Efforts to Exempt Foreign Service Retirement Income from Maryland State Taxation - Sample Letter to Send to State Elected Official

AFSA's Efforts to Exempt Foreign Service Retirement Income
from Maryland State Taxation
- Sample Letter to Send to State Elected Official

DATE

Return Address (this is needed so that
Your representative knows you are a
Constituent)

The Honorable XXX
XXX College Avenue
Annapolis, MD 21401-1991

Dear Delegate/Senator (choose one):

As a retired member of the U.S. Foreign Service, I applaud the General Assembly for considering House Bill 245/Senate Bill 211, which recognizes not only the sacrifice made by military retirees, but the many benefits they bring to their local communities and economies across the Free State. As Governor Ehrlich rightly states, military retirees are "valuable citizens who contribute to the intellectual, economic, and patriotic foundation of communities." So, too, are my colleagues, the retired members of the Foreign Service.

I join my 1600 retired colleagues living in the Free State to ask that you include members of the Foreign Service in HB 245/SB 211. Like those in the Armed Services, we proudly served our country overseas on the frontlines of freedom, many spending two-thirds of our careers posted abroad away from our Maryland homes. Foreign Service personnel are required to be available for worldwide service in an increasingly dangerous world, with all the risks such service poses. I will be joining my friends at the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) on Foreign Affairs Day this May in honoring colleagues killed in Iraq.

Foreign Service retirees possess many skills and attributes which uniquely benefit our local communities. We spent a considerable portion of our careers living and working in many different cultures overseas. We are also well-educated and naturally service-oriented. Following our retirement from the Foreign Service, we continue to be productive, civic-minded citizens of Maryland - retirees that, we believe, any state would welcome and hope to keep.

Again, I ask for your leadership and your support in including the Foreign Service in HB 245/SB 211. I look forward to hearing from you soon with regard to this issue.

Sincerely,