New York State taxpayers’ contributions to the Teachers Retirement Fund could quadruple by 2016, perhaps rising to as high as $4.5 billion statewide, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank.
Experts said Long Island could be particularly hard- hit, because of the region’s high salaries for teachers and police officers.
Calling the public pension system in New York State an “exploding” fiscal time bomb, the report states that contributions to the state’s Local Retirement Systems could more than double in the same time period, to another $4 billion. That’s in part due to the combination of recent significant fund losses with the increase in the number of retirees, the report said.
Experts and pension fund representatives cautioned that the report was making predictions based on assumptions about payrolls and market performances that might not end up being accurate.
John Cardillo, a spokesman for the Teachers Retirement System, cautioned against projections beyond 2012. “Going out any further . . . is difficult,” he said. “You can’t predict the future.”
The report attempts to do just that. “There is no financially responsible way to avoid the coming increases in pensions costs,” the report said. Its author, E.J. McMahon, said Long Island could bear the brunt of the costs…..
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