Connecticut’s teacher pension debt is officially listed at $16.8 billion, but a new study says that figure might be much higher. According to a new study published by Yankee Institute, Connecticut’s discount rate for its […]
Connecticut Teachers Retirement System
Connecticut’s teachers may be better off with a 401(k) style, defined contribution retirement plan than under Connecticut’s massively underfunded pension system, according to some number crunching. Assuming a 6.5 percent employer match and adjusted for […]
Yankee Letter Across Connecticut, the teacher pension system is not working for teachers, taxpayers or children. And it has the potential to fail current and future retirees if it is not equitably and carefully reformed […]
In 2008, Connecticut took out a $2 billion pension obligation bond in order to boost its teacher pension fund, which the state had underfunded for decades. The timing was calamitous as the country entered into […]
Requiring municipalities to take more responsibility for their teachers’ pension costs makes some sense – if those towns have the power to lower those pensions or the teachers’ other compensation. To do so any other way is […]
Connecticut’s two largest pension funds for teachers and state employees received 16 percent returns over the course of one year thanks to a surging stock market, giving the state a much needed boost.
Connecticut lowered the discount rate of the teacher’s retirement system from 8.5 percent to 8 percent in 2016, but it still remains higher than most other states. According to NASRA the median discount rate has dropped to 7.5 percent.
Connecticut pays $14,374 per teacher per year toward the teacher pension debt, money that could be used to increase teacher salaries or improve children’s education.
Lawmakers may increase the teacher pension contribution rate from 6 percent of a teacher’s pay to 7 percent as part of a new, compromise budget package.
Although proposal has drawn strong criticism from the state’s teachers’ unions, Connecticut teachers would still be paying less than the 8 percent national average teacher pension contribution and far less than the 11 percent contribution required in Massachusetts.
In an effort to deal with the skyrocketing cost of teacher pensions, Gov. Dannel Malloy has proposed shifting one-third the cost of the pensions onto towns, a move that will likely drive up property taxes as municipalities scramble to come up with $408 million in 2018.
Michigan, on the other hand, has taken step in the opposite direction.
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