Bob Buerkle: The truth about STRS; two ways our "esteemed" pension system is ripping us off

From Bob Buerkle

April 22, 2021

Reemployed Retirees - What a Deal For STRS!

Every year STRS pockets Millions of dollars on the backs of those retirees who have become reemployed as teachers.

The first way STRS makes Millions on reemployed retirees is obvious; they aren't getting the COLA that they were promised.

The second way that STRS is ripping off our reemployed friends is that all 14% of the Employer Contributions that STRS receives is retained by STRS. The working retiree receives nothing for their extra work, except for a tiny annuity, based solely on their own reemployment contributions and very inferior by comparison to their original STRS annuity. They have a second, maybe better option. They can receive their own contributions back plus a little interest and convert it into an IRA, when they finally stop working.

According to the most recent 06/30/2020 STRS Actuarial Valuation Report, there are 19,553 reemployed retirees. That number alone should tell our Legislators and everybody else that a substantial number of our former co-workers need more money than their "COLA-LESS STRS Pensions" are providing for them. If the average salary of these reemployed retirees is just $50,000 a year, STRS is retaining $136,871,000. That's $136.88 Million dollars, stolen from these reemployed retiree teachers, because STRS feels it has a greater right to this money than those who worked for it? This means that our reemployed retirees have had over $1.232 Billion dollars of employer contributions stolen from them since 2012.

STRS tells us it is a “Top Quartile Pension System.”  Do you agree?