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More than 280,000 military members serving in Hawaii, Alaska and 600 other Pacific locations this month received an increase in overseas cost-of-living allowances to offset higher costs. Higher living costs
in Pacific lead to
COLA increasesBy Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinThe exact amount each will receive is dependent on the person's rank, length of service and other factors. A more detailed explanation can be found at www.dfas.mil.
The military's COLA is different from the one received by federal employees, now set at 25 percent of an employee's base salary, said Chris Jay, spokesman for the Federal Executive Board. The federal employees' COLA is based on the cost-of-living prices in Washington, D.C.
Jay said close to 20,000 federal employees in Hawaii and the Pacific will get a 2.5 percent lump-sum COLA payment next fall, based on a court settlement earlier this year. Employees -- who were on the federal payroll between October 1990 and 1998 -- were paid a COLA rate of 22.5 percent, but were entitled to more.
Claim forms will be sent to the 20,000 employees next summer and payment is expected by November 2001, Jay said.
Earlier this year, Fern Park basketball players got some good news and bad news.
The good news: the basketball courts were to resurfaced. The bad news: 15 youths would be without a practice court in the middle of their season.
So, Tek Yoon, the park's recreation director, went across the street to Fort Shafter and talked to one of his neighbors -- Master Sgt. Robert Harris -- who turned to his boss, Lt. Col. Vida Longmire, commander of Fort Shafter's Military Police Battalion, for help.
Longmire agreed to open the base to the youths and from February to April, the ten boys and five girls practiced their drills at Fort Shafter's basketball courts.
"It paid off," said Yoon. "We placed second in one of the City and County Parks and Recreation divisions for 11 and under."
