Joe Paterno Breaks One Last Record
From Pennsylvania's Patriot-News:
Joe Paterno has apparently set another record.
The former Penn State football coach’s estate will collect what is likely the single-largest pension benefit ever paid by the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System.
Paterno’s widow, Sue, is to receive a payout of $13.4 million resulting from the late coach’s 61 years of well-compensated service to the university.
Paterno’s family released the information on his pension through a spokesman Tuesday.
The payout is due to the rare convergence of an extremely high salary for public-sector work and the length of the coach’s career.
Meanwhile, from the editorial page of another Pennsylvania publication, the Centre Daily Times:
Underfunded pensions for two employment groups — teachers and other school workers, and state government employees — are causing a $1.1 billion hit on the current state budget of about $27 billion. That’s up from $200 million a year ago.
The number will jump to $1.6 billion in 2013-14, and could hit $4 billion in the coming years unless steps are taken to slow the acceleration of costs.
However, don’t be quick to point the finger at the workers.
For the past decade, the state has been putting about 50 cents into the pot for every $1 those workers contributed — even though the shares were to be equal.
Pennsylvania, I have seen your future: we call it "California."
- Comment (5)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (0)
Comments:
Nov '11
Re: Joe Paterno Breaks One Last Record
Anyone know which party was in charge in the state of Pennsylvania for the past decade? The article doesn't say.
Mar '11
Re: Joe Paterno Breaks One Last Record
Would "Obscene" be too snarky? Exactly how is such an amount earned. It's a double salary for life.
Such generous pensions should not be paid in the public sector (admittedly this is an unusual case). It just encourages them to stay...
The R's should propose a 100% tax on all public pensions over $10000/ month. Let's have a real debate about "greed"
May '10
Re: Joe Paterno Breaks One Last Record
The PA Legislature has been mostly Republican controlled over the last decade. The Republicans have controlled the PA Senate for the last 12 years or so and the PA House for all but 2 or 3 years during that period.
May '10
Re: Joe Paterno Breaks One Last Record
At one time, Troy did this funny week-in-review piece that was full of fun snark like the closing line on this post....
I'm amazed to see a public university that still has defined benefit programs. Most are TIAA-CREF savings-based.
Sep '11
Re: Joe Paterno Breaks One Last Record
Mike Riscili, above, comments that Republicans have controlled the House and Senate for most of the past ten years. However, the Democrats (Ed Rendell) controlled the governor's office.
The budget process has been driven by the governor--Republican margins in both houses are slim, and there's as much a divide between Philadelphia-area vs. the rest of the state as between Republicans and Democrats in the legislature.