New York Post
They get an “A” in reading, writing — and retirement.
There are 738 educators collecting city pensions more than $100,000 — and three make more than $200,000, records show.
The $100,000-plus club makes up 1 percent of about 70,000 retirees in the city Teachers Retirement System, which doled out $3.8 billion in benefits in 2009.
It’s the costliest of the five pension systems that threaten to suck the city dry.
“All the pension funds are ticking time bombs,” said E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute think tank.
And the problem could worsen with the teachers union demanding raises of 4 percent over both of the next two years. This would add $5,600 a year to salaries of teachers now earning $70,000 or more. For every $1 pay hike, pensions go up 60 cents.
A Post Freedom of Information request to the TRS produced the list of the 738 highest-paid retirees — who pull in a total of $84 million a year.
The 738 is more than five times the 142 retirees with pensions over $100,000 in the city’s largest pension fund, NYCERS, whose 130,000 pensioners include transit, sanitation and other workers.
Ten of the retired educators have collected the generous payouts for 19 years.
Irene Impellizzeri had been one until her death last November. A longtime member of the old Board of Education, she began her career as a school teacher, earning her Ph.D. at Fordham University, where she also taught. When she retired after 48 years, she was earning $88,190 a year, and afterward collected an annual pension of $107,542. Over the course of her retirement she received more than $2 million.
Three pensions over $200,000 went to retirees now in their 80s — a CUNY professor, a Brooklyn superintendent and an assistant principal.
The top pension — $214,822 — goes to Upper West Sider Alvin Marty, 83, a Baruch College economics professor who retired after 55 years in 2008.
But Marty, who was forced to quit because of a degenerative spine disease, doesn’t expect to reap the benefits for long.
“I may not last more than four to five years,” he told The Post. “They’re not paying me that much for the small amount of time I’ll last.”
His pension is more than double his final $102,235 salary because it grew with each year of service. Investments of additional city contributions, along with some of his own earnings, further boosted the payout.
Pensions like his and others paid to 275,000 ex-city workers, in addition to pension contributions for current workers, cost a fortune. The city is paying $6.8 billion toward those costs this fiscal year, and expects to pay $7.3 billion next year.
“There is absolutely nothing you can do, unless you go to the United Federation of Teachers and say to them: ‘This is looking kind of scary — would you care to give up some of your benefits?’ ” McMahon said.
Mayor Bloomberg insists the UFT must settle for 2 percent raises each year to help close a $4.9 billion budget gap, or he’ll lay off 2,500 teachers.
The $100,000-plus club
* 738 retired educators collect more than $100,000 in city pensions
* 3 collect more than $200,000
* Total payout: $84 million a year
* Top pensioner, an ex-CUNY professor, gets $214,822 a year
* Teachers pension fund doled out $3.8 billion in benefits in 2009
Source: Teachers Retirement System
Filed under: News by Admin - Comments Off