I’m not against someone getting a decent retirement BUT… We in the private sector don’t get to retire after 30 years. I’m on 36 with 8 to go to get reduced benefits at 62 and I’ll be lucky to 1/3 of my salary from my own investments be we don’t get pensions anymore. It’s 401K or nothing.

You bring up an interesting point, Ray. The private sector treats its employees pretty shabbily these days. While many people say that the public sector should model itself after the private sector, I completely disagree. I’ve always thought that the private sector should strive to be more like the public sector.

You bring up an interesting point, Ray. The private sector treats its employees pretty shabbily these days. While many people say that the public sector should model itself after the private sector, I completely disagree. I’ve always thought that the private sector should strive to be more like the public sector.
— Faith
1:04 pm July 4th, 2009

Uh, the private sector doesn’t rape the taxpayers like the public sector. Every nickel this lady receives will come from or came from taxpayers. Amazingly, the public sector, especially education, is rarely affected by economic downturns. While everyone else is making sacrifices, the public folks are lined up at the tax money food trough demanding more.

I’m working and eligible for retirement. I’m collecting my retirement benefits now from one employer and earning a salary from a second employer. What’s wrong with that? If you earn a retirement from one job and take another that is fine. When you have worked long enough with an employer to retire you get your retirement benefits. Get real; part of the benefit of having a job is earning money for retirement. Having another job after you retire from one is just icing on the cake! Grippers get real!

@Amazedbythelunacy: With all due respect, where have you been the last twenty years? Between the abuse of local TIFs and other corporate tax breaks, corporate lobbyists, the outsourcing of jobs overseas, overpaid CEOs who turn around and fire thousands of workers, and the recent bailout of the financial and automotive sector, the private sector has found all sorts of ways to “rape” taxpayers. This whole notion of holding up the private sector as a paragon of virtue while telling the workaholic CEO of a large school district that her $205k salary is highway robbery is absurd. The private sector counterpart to her job would make more money than Nicastro will make with her salary and retirement combined.

I wish more posters would actually read the preceding comments before mindlessly griping about this woman’s pay. Her retirement is PRE-FUNDED, which means IT WAS TAKEN OUT OF HER SALARY FOR THREE DECADES.

I also wish more posters actually had to do Nicastro’s job for a week. If they did, they’d probably stop complaining about her pay.

Josh, you make valid points. However, you are mistaken if you think that 164,000 a year pension can be sustained by a prefunded account based on her salary history. She would need approx. 2.5 million in that bucket to provide that type of lifetime income.

The PSRS will eventually be busted. It won’t happen in the immediate future so but it will happen. The numbers just don’t add up. Why do you think the amount contributed has been raised nearly every year for the past dozen?

If you are a current teacher/administrator, I highly suggest you put what little money you can away in addition to the PSRS. These folks retiring today are going to drain it before you get a chance to tap it. Similiar to SS.

@Amazedbythelunacy: that $2.5 million is not as outlandish as you think. Even adjusting for inflation and pay raises, 32 years of income into the system (plus district matching) with approximately 8% interest compounded annually (that has been their historic rate of return), plus continued compounded interest on the principal during the payout period would achieve a number pretty close to $2.5 million. It’s worth running the numbers if you get a chance.

It may be a little premature yet to declare that PSRS “will” be busted. A lot can happen in 30-40 years. PSRS certainly faces some questions down the road, but that’s true of virtually every pension plan right now… life expectancies have gone up and retirement ages have not, and until we resolve those issues everyone’s fixed retirement (from Social Security on down) will be in jeopardy at some point. (And let’s not even talk about how unpredictable 401(k)s have been.) Even so, PSRS is still one of the best managed pension plans in the country and has achieved a surprisingly high annualized return on its investments compared to other pension plans.

I’m just glad she’s out of the Hazelwood School District. Under her “leadership”, district taxpayers got much higher property taxes and no improvement in student performance. That’s her specialty: Public relations with a steep price tag and no substance.

Josh,

I don’t know for certain, but I’d bet 1,000 bucks this lady hasn’t always had a six figure salary. If she started out in the classroom in the 70’s, she didn’t contribute much to the retirement system during those times. Her salary probably increased every year and took off once she got into the administration, but that money invested at those later years had NO chance of making it to the amount she needed.

The PSRS is one of the strongest pensions in the country and education has a few positives that will sustain it longer(teachers that contribute for a few years and then leave the profession would be one). However, you stated the exact reasons why it will be eventually busted. The PSRS administrators have steadily increased the contribution amount almost yearly and did so again this year. Soon, 13% of pay plus district match will be going into the system. Infinite increases can’t be sustained forever.

Someone call Elliot Davis. This is disgusting!