Superintendent retirement packages that sometimes top $100,000 a year are a costly burden for local school districts and taxpayers, critics of government spending say.

Three of the eight school district leaders who have retired since 2004 earn six-digit pensions, according to New York State Teachers’ Retirement System records.

The superintendents are at the top of the heap of an educators’ retirement system that costs $96 billion statewide.

And as the economy has struggled and the markets have dropped, taxpayers and school districts are contributing more toward the bill.

Next year, districts will have to contribute 6.7 percent of an employee’s salary to make up for less return on investments, Retirement System Records Access Officer John Cardillo said. That percentage is expected to rise in coming years.

“The tax funded part will be well above 10 percent in a couple years,” said E.J. McMahon, director for the Empire Center for Public Policy. “You’re talking about employees costing four percent more than what they cost now.”

The pensions also are free of New York state taxes, though some face federal taxes…

Read article here