Retired, then rehired: How college workers use loophole to boost pay

Seattle Times ^ | June 27, 2010 | Nick Perry and Justin Mayo

[Second Amendment First]

Well they can’t ignore the public pensions anymore when in some places (Kalifornia cities) the pension costs are 75% of the budget.

[Second Amendment First]

Good for you, and thanks for all of your posts on the media on FR.

[Second Amendment First]

LOL!

[freekitty]

Makes me furious because the taxpayer is psying the tab.

[freekitty]

The taxpayer is not paying the tab in private business.

[Richard Kimball]

First, a paycheck of over $300,000 seems ridiculous for a state employee. As to whether or not his collecting a pension while working is a problem, it depends on the situation. If the pension is self-funded from contributions made before he retired, and is based on interest earned from those contributions, it should be treated like any other annuity. You don't ask someone what their other income is for them to receive an annuity based on previous investments. If it's funded by current tax revenue or tuition, it should be illegal.

[Liberty Ship]

I’ve seen this quite often in the regular school systems in the state where I live. A teacher “retires” in her early 40’s from a system. Then goes back to work in that system for pay even though the retirement benefits are coming in. Can she retire twice? Who knows? I’ve seen it at other government agencies where people retire and go right back in as “consultants.”

A government worker is the USA equivalent of the USSR’s “party member.” They can’t lose. Never get fired, and men with guns come and collect your benefits from the private sector.

[Fractal Trader]

Wa ping

[Liz]

THE MILLIONAIRE COP (firefighter, teacher, federal bureaucrat) NEXT DOOR
By Rich Karlgaard, Forbes Magazine 6/28/10 issue

EDITED Who are America's fastest-growing class of millionaires? They are police officers, firefighters, teachers and federal bureaucrats, who, unless things change drastically, will be paid something near their full salaries every year--until death--after retiring in their mid-50s....a retirement sum worth millions.

Based on a realistic 4% return, an $80,000 annual pension payout with full health benefits implies a large pot of money--$2 million, to be precise.

That $2 million also happens to be the implied booty of your average California policeman who retires at age 55........in Carlsbad, Cali, the average firefighter or police officer typically retires at age 55 and has 28 years of service w/ an annual city pension of $76,440 for life.

SOURCE http://www.forbes.com/

[Paved Paradise]

Our local paper has been reporting on this in recent weeks. The double dipping school superintendents seem to think that just because it’s legal, it’s okay. They collect full pensions from Ohio and then get paid full salary for returning to work. One lady is making over $250K. Meanwhile, a person who could use the job can’t do it. I do not understand the logic of this AT ALL. My friend works for the Fed’l Govtmt and if she gets a job, they will deduct her pension from the pay she receives. That seems to make sense. I thought retirement pay was meant for actual retirees. Sheesh.

[Paved Paradise]

Yep. Happening big time in Ohio.

[Richard Kimball]

I retired from the fire service and receive a pension while working as a fire instructor for another organization. I don't see a conflict as my previous pension was fully funded and my benefits do not come from the city with which I worked but from an independent pension trust. If the trust goes bankrupt, I lose my benefits. The city completed their obligation on the day of my retirement. This is a completely different situation from one in which the state maintains obligations to fully fund the pension after the employee retires. This is the coming storm in pensions. Many organizations made their books look better by making future obligations instead of funding the pensions at the time the obligation was incurred. Instead of putting $800 per month into an interest bearing account during the employee term of service and calculating the benefit at the time of retirement based on contributions and reasonably expected disbursement based on life expectancy and total amount of contributions, they simply pushed the obligations back into future budgets. This allowed them to promise pensions that were unrealistic.

Because government employees are such a strong voting block, elected officials have done fiscally irresponsible things to keep them happy. In San Francisco, although the school system has a declining number of students every year, the district has refused to release employees that are not needed.

[Uncle Chip]

exploiting a loophole in state retirement laws.

Others call it "rape" -- rape of the taxpayer.

[fireman15]

In Washington our pensions are 2% per multiplied by our the average of our highest five years of pay. Our benefits after we retire Cost of Living increases are capped at 3% per year no matter how high the inflation rate goes. If you want your wife to be able to collect benefits after you die... you have to take a greatly reduced payment. The state and the city claim that our retirement system is over-funded so they keep reducing the amount of money that they contribute. When I started we put in 50% and the city contributed the other 50%, now we contribute approximately 66% and the city contributes 33%.

If this high deficit spending eventually results in high inflation which is very likely the value of our pensions could be wiped out in very short order. This happened to my uncle who retired in the early 1970s and now receives only a few hundred dollars a month and has to supplement his income by driving a school bus in his late 70s.

In California... firefighters, police and some other state employees pensions are calculated at 3% per year multiplied by the average of their highest five years. Their pay is higher than ours to begin with. Obviously 3% per year adds up a whole lot quicker than 2% per year. I have no idea about federal employees retirement benefits.

I wouldn't deny that some firefighters and police have been given a cushy retirement deal... but not all. In Washington the previous retirement system is way over-funded and was at one time about a billion dollars ahead of its expected obligations. Ours is not as good as the previous system. Our Firefighting is the kind of job that very few old people can do well.

[sionnsar]

Thanks to Fractal Trader for the ping.

Say WA? Evergreen State ping

Quick link: WA State Board

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.
Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.

[USAFJeeper]

Hey! As a native New Orleanian, we eat red beans rice every Monday, out of choice!

(Monday was wash day in early New Orleans so they would put a pot of beans on all day to cook while laundry was done, so now... we eat em every monday!)

[poobear]

Jeeper, I just hulled a bushel of cowpeas this weekend and put up over a dozen pints of them. My hatred of tyranny could never be stronger!

[tinamina]

The article says this is Washington State U in Pullman, WA, not in OR.