PA teachers' pension fund wants billions more from taxpayers
$20 billion off the books since last year
The Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement Fund said today its "plan net assets" used for calculating future pension subsidies shrank to $43 billion at June 30, from $63 billion a year ago.
As a result, PSERS is calling for an 8.22% payroll surcharge on all school payrolls in 2010-11, to be financed by state taxpayers and local property taxpayers, up from this year's 4.78% levy.
Put another way, PSERS wants $1.1 billion next year, up from $617 Million this year, to supplement investment profits and payroll deductions taken from school workers' checks, so it can pay around $5 billion in annual pensions to retired school workers and administrators.
That's going to mean either local property tax increases, plus more money from the state's pinched revenues; or some quick legislating to postpone the problem once again.
PSERS also says the surcharge should go up to 29% of payroll, or more than $4 billion, in 2012-13.
Read more from PSERS here.