A shocker came through the mail slot today

Our retirees group had talked about it, but still, it was a shock. I'm still going to carefully examine a check I received from the U.S. Treasury today with no letter of explanation. Teachers in Ohio in the public pension system do not get Social Security, whether earned or spousal benefit, and a new law changed that. It ended the "windfall" and "offset" provisions.

(CBS News) "The Social Security Administration (SSA) has processed over 2.5 million retroactive payments for teachers, firefighters, police officers and others with public pensions who were previously locked out of retirement benefits, the agency said last week.

Signed into law by President Biden in January 2025, the Social Security Fairness Act requires the agency to adjust benefits for 3.2 million people, including future and past benefits. Social Security has completed 90% of its caseload, according to its May 27 update. "

Where are the yard signs against issue 51?

A friend’s daughter is trying to do a photo essay on our local school levy, but can’t find a yard sign to photograph.  I don't support issue 51 , but I see no yard signs either. The Vote for Issue 51 signs are standing next to both Romney and Obama signs.

In a suburb next door to OSU, not voting for a school or library issue is tough going. Issue 51 is a 5.8-mill operating levy for Upper Arlington City Schools on the Nov. 6 ballot. If approved by voters, the levy would cost homeowners an additional $178 in annual taxes per $100,000 in property value and generate about $9.2 million per year for the school district. We have an exceptionally good school system, but 86% of the money goes for wages and benefits.  Ohio is not a Right to Work state, so these teachers are protected by both the union and the STRS.  Their retirement package will be 3-4 times what someone on Social Security will get, with far fewer years of service. 

UA schools are especially fine for those going to college (others are the children left behind--my friends suggest moving to Worthington if you have special needs children), but it's pricey and gets the same results as other districts that spend far less. UA cost per student is $15,172; at Olentangy district schools it is $9,465. Hard to find a website or an article, but here's one:

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/upperarlington/news/2012/10/03/anti-levy-campaign-educate-ua-seeking-lasting-district-reforms.html

Jodi and Susi plan for retirement

Note: The story of Jodi and Susi is fiction--at least the main characters. The amounts and the disparities in the pensions are true. This is why I’m voting for Issue 2 in Ohio.

Jodi and Susi are both 55 and were roommates at a Christian college. After graduation Jodi went on for an MBA right away, but Susi took a teaching position in a poor community because she could get assistance paying her college loans from the government. Later she got an M.S. with assistance from the school district where she settled. Jodi spent years paying off her school loans; Susie invested her windfalls from the federal and local governments.

Both women today make $90,000 a year, Jodi as a manager of several Wendy’s restaurants working about 60 hours a week, 12 months a year, and Susi as an assistant principal working about 40 hours a week, 10 months a year. Susi goes interesting places in the summer to teach teachers in 6 week workshops, does a little touring on the side, and invests her additional summer salary, looking ahead to when she can retire with 35 years next year at 56 in the state teacher‘s system. Jodi would like to travel, but keeps it modest because she needs to invest in her 401-k and private savings, looking ahead to when she can retire at age 67 or later.

Next year Susi will begin drawing her $70,000 pension and will begin substituting in different districts, selecting carefully only those jobs she truly loves--like working with low-income children slipping through the cracks of all the regulations imposed by the U.S. Department of Education and the State Board of Education, and the local board. There are days when she's reduced to tears by the burden of what is expected of her. The school districts will benefit because they won’t need to pay her as much as a regular teacher who will need union negotiated benefits, plus she’s an outstanding teacher with experience and will do a better job than a beginner.

Jodi has another 12 years to work and pay into Social Security, to which she began contributing at age 16. When she retires, her “government” pension will be $28,150 (this figure will be larger in 2023, but that’s what it would be today). She has paid much more into FICA than Susi has paid into STRS because restaurant managers don’t have a powerful union. Technically she’s Susi’s employer so she’s also been contributing to Susi’s pension. She has also worked longer days, and more days per year than Susi. She too is reduced to tears some days as she has to do basic remediation for some of her employees who attended schools where Susi taught because they are unprepared for the work world.

Susi, by the way, never actually joined the teacher’s union, but she had to pay dues anyway if she wanted to teach in a public system in Ohio. Like the majority of teachers in the United States, she votes Republican and doesn’t like it that the unions contribute primarily to Democratic candidates and causes. She’s also pro-life, and is really bothered that teachers unions contribute heavily to candidates and organizations that support abortion, and especially to Barack Obama, who is very pro-abortion and pro-embryonic stem cell research. She contributes to pro-life organizations, but not as much as she surrenders to the union.

In any case, next year at 56 she has great plans to enjoy her retirement with her pension and her private investments. Meanwhile, Jodi puts a smile on her face, her lunch in her briefcase, and heads for the free-way.

My first Social Security check

Some of you will be deciding what to do with the $250 "stimulus check." I suspect mine will have to be given back, so I haven't cashed it. Although today I heard that someone who had only been in the country 7 months in the 1930s and had been dead for years had gotten the $250 stimulus (I wonder if he voted in 2008 election). At least I'm alive. But I don't qualify for SS because I have a teacher's pension. It's called an "offset." Now it's possible that they couldn't figure out how not to give it to me, because only teachers and a few others get hit with this "double dipping" pension charge--God knows, it doesn't affect Congress or auto workers' pensions. Technically, I'm on their books as the spousal benefit of my husband's SS, it's just that STRS cancels it out--unless maybe Obama is feeling generous, and he hasn't figured out how to micromanage enough computers to toss me completely out of the system. Sigh. I do know this. That if I cash it, and 3 years later he wants it back because I wasn't supposed to get it, I'll owe $3,967.87 interest on that $250.

It's really unfortunate that in this high tech world you can't just pick up the phone and call some one.

Have you read your STRS newsletter this month?

How about that part about bonuses for the fund managers even though all that money was lost. Really, was it their fault? Want some ACORNish outrage showing up at their door step Mr. Frank and Mr. Obama? Our pensions are not looking so great. This piece is not from that, but it could be

. . . we are just starting to see the unraveling of public pension systems that could well shake some of society’s basic foundations. Policemen, policewomen, firefighters, teachers and other public employees form the backbone of society. Many of these people happily take jobs offering lower wages in return for the psychic income of public service and, of equal importance, the financial income of a generous pension when they retire.

My pension is far from generous, certainly not like the public school teacher who has taught 30 years then retired because it didn't pay to continue. I only have 23 years, and some of that I had to buy back from Illinois. But many retired public servants do quite well, and then create other careers. I talked to a man the other day at the Senior Center--he and his wife had 5 pensions between them.