Question:
I am a 37 year veteran teacher, retired from Jordan District and teaching in Granite for the past 5 years. I have a M.Ed and many endorsements. When I was hired by Granite I was told that, because we cannot put another retirement into the system I would be getting that money put into a 401K. This happened (and was wonderful) for 3 years. Last year I was told that the Districts were given the option to either put this money in or not. Granite opted not to do this. My question is, where does this money go? It seems to me that I work the same amount of hours (sometimes more!) than my colleagues but I am not getting the same pay. Is this fair? Thanks for this open forum and your willingness to answer our questions.
Answer:
Prior to the 2010-11 school year, Granite was required by law to make retirement contributions for employees who were double dipping. These contributions were placed into the double-dipping employee’s 401K plan because, as a retired employee, they were already collecting their retirement and were no longer earning service credit in the retirement system. This was a very good deal for the retired, double-dipping employee. They were receiving retirement checks, a pay check from the district and a significant contribution to their 401K plan. This all worked very well until the economic crisis came. Not only were the state and school district budgets in trouble but the Utah Retirement System lost $6 billion on their investments in one year. The legislature started to look very closely at how to make changes to the Retirement System that would save money and get the system back into a better financial position. They made multiple changes to the system but they looked closely at the double-dippers. There was some fear that the legislature would prohibit double-dipping. They ultimately did not prohibit the practice but they made changes that now make it more difficult to become a double-dipper and they also made the 401K retirement contributions for the double-dippers optional for the district.
At the same time that these changes happened in the retirement system, Granite was faced with unprecedented budget cuts because of cuts in state funding for public education. Granite had to cut $28 million from the budget in 2009-10, $17 million in 2010-11 and $13 million in 2011-12. That’s a total of $58 million in cuts in 3 years. Granite’s Board of Education had to make many difficult decisions during the last 3 budget years in order to balance the budget. One of those difficult decisions was to stop contributing retirement funding into the 401K plans of our double-dipping employees. The 401K contributions are no longer required by law because of the changes made by the legislature.
The legislature stopped short of prohibiting double-dipping. Double dippers can still collect their retirement checks and a pay check from the district but they no longer have the additional advantage of the 401K contribution.
laneasampson says
Thank you for your answer. I realize that you consider me a “double dipper”, although it seems to me that not only did I work over 30 years in order to earn my retirement, but I am now working just as hard as any other teacher in Granite without receiving the same amount of money. It’s unfortunate that we veteran teachers who bring years of experience and are able to mentor new teachers are not valued enough to receive the same compensation as newer teachers in Granite District. I, for one, feel that I was lied to when I was hired on in Granite District and that the promises that were made to me were not kept. I would appreciate any other enlightenment that you can give on this subject. Thank you.