Post by Logan on Dec 19, 2016 14:40:22 GMT -6
Pennsylvania school districts brace for higher pension costs
Pennsylvania's school districts have gotten an early lump of coal this holiday season from Harrisburg: word that teacher pension costs, which have taken ever larger bites out of budgets in recent years, will rise faster than expected in 2017-18.
The board that administers the state's Public School Employees' Retirement System, or PSERS, voted earlier this month to increase the rate of districts' per-worker pension contributions from the current 30.03 percent to 32.57, amounting to an 8.5 percent hike.
PSERS officials put the blame, in part, on the $50 billion fund's flat investments for its fiscal year that ended in June. But they also sought to cast the looming rate increase in a positive light, hailing it as the smallest percentage hike since 2009-10, the dawn of Pennsylvania's school funding crisis.
However, the news felt like an icy winter blast to school district business managers, who already have watched skyrocketing pension contributions become a leading cause, along with employee health care, of spending shortfalls and rising property taxes.
Read more: www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-pa-school-districts-pension-costs-20161218-story.html
Pennsylvania's school districts have gotten an early lump of coal this holiday season from Harrisburg: word that teacher pension costs, which have taken ever larger bites out of budgets in recent years, will rise faster than expected in 2017-18.
The board that administers the state's Public School Employees' Retirement System, or PSERS, voted earlier this month to increase the rate of districts' per-worker pension contributions from the current 30.03 percent to 32.57, amounting to an 8.5 percent hike.
PSERS officials put the blame, in part, on the $50 billion fund's flat investments for its fiscal year that ended in June. But they also sought to cast the looming rate increase in a positive light, hailing it as the smallest percentage hike since 2009-10, the dawn of Pennsylvania's school funding crisis.
However, the news felt like an icy winter blast to school district business managers, who already have watched skyrocketing pension contributions become a leading cause, along with employee health care, of spending shortfalls and rising property taxes.
Read more: www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-pa-school-districts-pension-costs-20161218-story.html