Thursday, November 06, 2014

PERS and the 4J School District

I have long wondered what percent of the local 4J school district budget goes to funding retirement plans.

I last blogged about the 4J budget here and here.

At that first link, I had navigated the district's convoluted budget documents as best I could and thought that the district was paying for $3.7 million of "extra" pension expense (beyond the $2 million that is set aside because part of planning salaries is setting aside money for retirement costs).

That was 2.4% of the total budget, or $234 per student.


I recently found, hidden as the last sentence of a newspaper article, the revelation that the district is  actually paying $21 million each year for retirement.  They hide that very well in their budget document!

That was 13.8% of the total budget, or $1,326 per student.  Much bigger!

Looking at the numbers another way, the district spends 60% of its budget on instruction, and 23% of that amount is retirement funding.

The national average for private sector employers to pay for retirement and savings benefits is 3.7 percent of total compensation.

No comments: