Employees should contribute to own retirement costs

In the Oct. 13 Daily Herald there is an article titled, "District 57 officials outline case for tax increase."

In it assistant superintendent for finance and operations Adam Parisi states that "the projected deficit for the 2018 fiscal year amounts to nearly $2 million. The district's fund balance is in danger of becoming depleted within four years." There is a way this district could reduce this deficit by 44 percent. In this district both the teachers' and administrators' pension contributions to the Teachers' Retirement System are paid for by the district taxpayers - the teachers and administrators pay nothing toward their own retirement.

One of the justifications we always hear from our educators for their overly generous pensions is that they pay 9½ percent toward their pensions whereas the private sector employee only pays in 6½ percent for their future social security retirement income.

Now it turns that many teachers and administrators have been paying $0 toward their own retirement.

This district could save $883,466 if both the teachers and administrators paid the 9½ percent out of their own base salary - just as the 6½ percent is paid out of the base salary of private sector employees.

Also, having the district taxpayers pay for their retirement contribution results in the underreporting of both the teachers' and administrators' base salary - their base salary is actually 9½ percent higher than the numbers that the district publishes.

I realize this $833K savings will not eliminate the $2 million deficit but it will substantially reduce it. Once again, a school district management has placed the interests of themselves and their employees above those of their district taxpayers and their own students.

And, once again, they want the district taxpayers to bail them out.

Ken Hofrichter

Elk Grove Village