STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. –The number of people receiving pensions larger than $100,000 from the New York City Teacher Retirement System doubled between 2008 and 2013, according to data obtained by the Albany-based Empire Center and posted at SeeThroughNY.net.

The city Teachers Retirement System, or TRS, administers pensions for 80,300 members, mostly former employees of the Department of Education (DOE) and some from the City University of New York (CUNY).
 
The data, detailing $3.4 billion in payments to a total of 74,884 retirees in 2013, shows the number of six-figure teacher pensions rising from 856 to 1,796.

The information become available for the first time in several years as a result of the Empire Center’s four-year legal battle and victory at the Court of Appeals.

In a 6-0 ruling in May, the state Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, held that the names of state and local government pensioners are subject to public disclosure under the state Freedom of Information Law. Since the ruling, both the state and city teachers retirement systems have released their pension rolls for the first time since 2010.

The top six-figure pension, of $561,286 a year, is paid to Edgar J. McManus, whom the New York Post identified as a 90-year-old former Queens College history professor who retired in 2012.

The second-biggest pension, of $308,358, is paid to to Alvin Marty, a former Baruch College economics professor who retired in 2008 after 55 years in the CUNY system, the Post reported.

The highest DOE pension, $287,625, is paid to a James D. Rosen, who gets some $80,000 more than City Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina.

Fifteen other retirees collect more than $200,000 a year, including Chancellor  Fariña, who gets $208,506.

And 1,796 retired educators get pensions of more than $100,000 a year.

© 2014 Staten Island Advance