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Incredible. No wonder the unions fight so hard for their turf, with people like Sheldon (may his corruption RIP) in their pocket for all these decades:
"4,841 New York City Teachers’ Retirement System (NYCTRS) and New York State Teachers’ Retirement System (NYSTRS) retirees were eligible to receive pensions over $100,000 during 2014, up from 1,663 in 2009. Ten individuals were eligible to receive pensions larger than $300,000 in 2014." (2014 Empire Center report on pensions in NY State) Here's a PDF of the top earners: http://www.empirecenter.org/wp-conte...op100-2014.pdf
Our Chancellor Farina (no . 20 on the list) is both collecting a pension for life in excess of $200,000 plus her salary.
Charter school teachers generally don't get these pensions.....
Remember the kids the next time someone suggests an Education policy change - don't for one second think that Unions' interests are aligned with those of the kids educational interests - they aren't. The Unions' interests are.... their own.
If the rank and file teachers want support from the public for their pensions they should support demands that State pensions be capped at some reasonable level - perhaps $100,000 a year, index-linked, for life.
But how much were they earning while they were in activity? As unfair as it might sound, if they have contributed to a certain amount during their working time, they might deserve more in return even though it's the same as others in term of %.
I don't really know how much they deserve but at the end of the day, there is only 1 pot, the city budget. Teachers, police, firemen, sanitation workers all do useful jobs and they probably all deserve to be paid well. However, their salaries and pensions are all funded by taxpayers. If you're not rich and you live in NYC, how much are you willing to be squeezed?
These recent articles concerning teacher pension retirements with 6 figures are false.
The people named with these 6 figure pensions are all top level administrators, not teachers. Teachers won't receive pensions like this.
Articles like this are trying to sway the public so that teachers retirement pensions can be cut with another tier. They have already been cut in the last tier. They are going hard for teachers to get to their real targets like the state troopers, police, and fire depts, court officers, corrections and other law enforcement people that allow retirement at an earlier age.
There is no way that people can perform these jobs after a certain age. Also for the salaries that are paid, no one in their right mind will perform these jobs without some reward in the end.
Not only is all of this not taken into consideration, but the only way to get to the law enforcement pensions is to first cut other major pensions like the teachers. There are many other pensions that are tied into the teachers pensions but are separate that this would affect also, so they can kill many birds with one stone.
Incredible. No wonder the unions fight so hard for their turf, with people like Sheldon (may his corruption RIP) in their pocket for all these decades:
"4,841 New York City Teachers’ Retirement System (NYCTRS) and New York State Teachers’ Retirement System (NYSTRS) retirees were eligible to receive pensions over $100,000 during 2014, up from 1,663 in 2009. Ten individuals were eligible to receive pensions larger than $300,000 in 2014." (2014 Empire Center report on pensions in NY State) Here's a PDF of the top earners: http://www.empirecenter.org/wp-conte...op100-2014.pdf
Our Chancellor Farina (no . 20 on the list) is both collecting a pension for life in excess of $200,000 plus her salary.
Charter school teachers generally don't get these pensions.....
Remember the kids the next time someone suggests an Education policy change - don't for one second think that Unions' interests are aligned with those of the kids educational interests - they aren't. The Unions' interests are.... their own.
If the rank and file teachers want support from the public for their pensions they should support demands that State pensions be capped at some reasonable level - perhaps $100,000 a year, index-linked, for life.
The current situation leaves a bad taste...
The average NYC teacher pension is less than $30,000 so the above doesn't have much to do with anything.
You also forgot to include the part of the article where it states that the vast majority of the 6 digit pensioners are from suburban districts,not NYC.
My guess is that almost none of the mentioned pensions are for teachers but are for administrators so it doesn't have anything to do with "rank and file" teachers.
I don't really know how much they deserve but at the end of the day, there is only 1 pot, the city budget. Teachers, police, firemen, sanitation workers all do useful jobs and they probably all deserve to be paid well. However, their salaries and pensions are all funded by taxpayers. If you're not rich and you live in NYC, how much are you willing to be squeezed?
Taxpayers cannot fund these pensions alone. Workers have to contribute to their own pensions for a quite awhile. The other portions are funded through investments. You will never hear a politician actually say out of their mouths that they need taxes for pensions because it's not true. Its a myth fueled by the interest of those that would rather see the money go elsewhere, for whatever reason. Many workers worked for years without new contracts, and those that did receive contracts had no raises, and some salaries were cut through losing a few days of work a year.
Taxpayers cannot fund these pensions alone. Workers have to contribute to their own pensions for a quite awhile. The other portions are funded through investments. You will never hear a politician actually say out of their mouths that they need taxes for pensions because it's not true. Its a myth fueled by the interest of those that would rather see the money go elsewhere, for whatever reason. Many workers worked for years without new contracts, and those that did receive contracts had no raises, and some salaries were cut through losing a few days of work a year.
I do agree it's hard to know the reality of the situation. Neither the politicians nor the union leaders can be trusted due to their self serving interests. And as always, the rank and file workers and New Yorkers suffer.
Taxpayers cannot fund these pensions alone. Workers have to contribute to their own pensions for a quite awhile. The other portions are funded through investments. You will never hear a politician actually say out of their mouths that they need taxes for pensions because it's not true. Its a myth fueled by the interest of those that would rather see the money go elsewhere, for whatever reason. Many workers worked for years without new contracts, and those that did receive contracts had no raises, and some salaries were cut through losing a few days of work a year.
The state has, and will often, have to step in to cover unfunded pension liabilities. Overly optimistic investment return projections haven't helped. That "unfunded liabilities" make up money comes from.....taxpayers (citizens and businesses).
The actuarial tricks heretofore fool plenty. Including a lot of union members I'm sure. No-one really looks at the numbers. And don't give me the flannel that the contributions made by individuals can ever amount to these figures. Any one earning even 100K salary with a 401K putting their max contribution in each year with the best mutual funds on the planet will never, ever get a pot of money when they retire that could amount to such a huge annual payout for life. That's the reality.
No-one needs more than $100K a year pension in retirement. The state shouldn't be in the business of this. It should provide services based on what citizens need. Paying $300,000 pensions..... That's screwed up.
These recent articles concerning teacher pension retirements with 6 figures are false.
The people named with these 6 figure pensions are all top level administrators, not teachers. Teachers won't receive pensions like this.
Articles like this are trying to sway the public so that teachers retirement pensions can be cut with another tier. They have already been cut in the last tier. They are going hard for teachers to get to their real targets like the state troopers, police, and fire depts, court officers, corrections and other law enforcement people that allow retirement at an earlier age.
There is no way that people can perform these jobs after a certain age. Also for the salaries that are paid, no one in their right mind will perform these jobs without some reward in the end.
Not only is all of this not taken into consideration, but the only way to get to the law enforcement pensions is to first cut other major pensions like the teachers. There are many other pensions that are tied into the teachers pensions but are separate that this would affect also, so they can kill many birds with one stone.
Thank you for speaking out on this, DAS.
Yes, no teacher would ever get a pension worth 300k. Ever. Those are all administrators. Ignorant people buy up stuff like this and then try to say no one should have a pension. These articles are out to appeal to people making the minimum wage with no benefits, and who are too dumb to fight for better working conditions at their jobs. Instead of wanting to pull everyone down into destitution, why not fight to make your job better?
Also today teachers are required to have masters degrees, plus one has to be licensed to teach. After all the work it takes to be a teacher of course no one is going to do that job unless they have an excellent reward in the end (stable employment, great retirement benefits, and a decent amount of time off allowing the teacher to do other jobs/interests if need be.
As for the other civil servants, they are an important part of our society and yes they too are not going to do this important work without a great reward in the end.
The civil service unions have influence and power of their own, and they won't go down.
When the cops felt they were excessively attacked and threatened a work slowdown, you see how de Blasio and Bratton had to negotiate things with the police union. The cops wouldn't tolerate being publically bashed (though the police union isn't supposed to strike).
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