School Board faces stiff hike in retirement contributions

The St. Landry Parish School Board agreed Thursday to press the Legislature to do what lawmakers aren’t inclined to do -- pay for the cost of laws they pass -- even in the best of times.
Board members were shocked to learn the parish faces an increase of about $3.5 million in its share of teacher and other employee retirement fund contributions in its next fiscal year.
The Executive Committee, which includes Eunice members Roger Young and Harry Fruge, reported that Supt. Michael Nassif told it the system will have to look at reductions in personnel to come up with the money.
At this point, the appropriation is not definite and there is no rush to cutback, because nothing becomes final until the Legislature adopts a budget during its upcoming session.
But legislators historically ignore unfunded accrued liabilities of retirement systems, leaving it to local government to meet the cost of benefits established by the lawmakers.
According to letters from the retirement system administrators, the teacher retirement percentage paid by the board will increase from the current 15.8 percent to 20.4 percent of payroll.
Individual employee contributions will remain at 9.1 percent or 5.0 percent, depending on which plan an employee is enrolled in.
And the percentage of pay contribution for other employees will increase to 24.3 percent of salary. The individual employee contribution remains at 7.5 percent.
Board member Scott Richard was incensed over the retirement tariff change.
He noted the governor and the state superintendent of education held a press conference earlier Thursday touting more “reform” at the local school level.
But he noted that not once did either say anything about the traumatic cuts being made in state funding to what he called vital programs as the recession-drivenbudget shakeout continues.
He encouraged the board to appeal to the parish legislative delegation for some assistance in the retirement issue.
Nassif told the board that a meeting to review issues is being scheduled with the delegation.