Posted on 11/14/2011 3:20:46 PM PST by nickcarraway
Former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky and ousted Vice President Gary Schultz will likely continue to be very well paid by the university.
Sandusky was indicted last week on 40 counts of child sex abuse charges. Schultz was charged with perjury before the grand jury investigating the Sandusky case, which is also a felony, along with failing to report suspected child abuse.
When he retired, Sandusky opted to take a lump-sum pension payment of $148,271 from the State Employees Retirement System. The rest of his pension is being paid out monthly and is $58,898 annually.
Schultz could be far more richly paid. He elected to receive a $421,847 lump-sum payment at the time of his retirement in 2009, after nearly 39 years of service. He also receives a monthly pension payment of $27,558 nearly the cost of tuition for two in-state freshmen at State College. That comes to nearly $331,000 a year. Schultz had returned to his former post in September on an interim basis while the university conducted a national search for a permanent appointee.
Pension information for former Athletic Director Tim Curley, charged with perjury and failing to report suspected child abuse along with Schultz, was not available because he did not participate in the state pension system. Ousted President Graham Spanier also was not a member of the state pension system.
The Patriot-News has submitted a request for longtime football coach Joe Paternos pension.
Information about Paternos and Schultzs pensions is now public information as a result of a five-year court battle launched by The Patriot-News in 2002. That lawsuit, which went all the way to the state Supreme Court, removed a shroud of secrecy that Penn State had demanded for university employees who participated in the pension plan.
And you are on the hook for significantly more than you used to be because: 1) Tom Ridge stopped the Commonwealth's contribution to the fund while governor, so the trust is significantly underfunded, even though the Commonwealth guarantees the trust by law, and 2) because the SERS administration lost over 25% of its assets in the Market Crash in 2008, and because 3) the administrators continue to pretend SERS is fully funded despite 1 and 2, and continue with a preposterous projection of 8% return on investments.
But note you ARE NOT on the hook because of Penn State. Despite the name, Penn State is not a state school, and outlays from the general fund do not finance Penn State pensions; there are no "Penn State" pensions. And not all PSU employees are part of SERS.
See Post #19. He is mistaken.
Penn States 2011-12 State Appropriation finalized on June 30 at $279 million...
Total Budget:
$4.1 billion
http://www.budget.psu.edu/BoTJuly/July%20Board%202011%20-%20FINAL.pdf
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=593234&mode=2
I don’t see anything that would allow the stripping of his pension - specifically any sexual stuff.
The law is specific...
Nevertheless, the public has a right to now about this pension.
Hmm, I believe governor of IL lost his pension when he went to Prison...oh which governor (we have had numerous perps)? George Ryan.
Perhaps if convicted, the University can at the very least discontinue his pension as he committed crimes while employed.
If he had been caught beating a kid with a baseball bat, wonder if the janitor or assistant coach would have intervened.
This doesn't mean Penn State runs a pension system.
6.8% of budget also doesn't make Penn State a state university, whatever the name may say. Penn State is a private land grant. The governor gets exactly ONE vote on the Board of Trustees. He may even lose that if PSU decides it's not worth it for <7% of funding.
Several schools beside Penn State (Temple, Pitt) receive money from the Commonwealth. That doesn't make them state schools, either.
The Pennsylvania University system has nothing to do with the Penn State University System; it consists of Shippensburg, Lock Haven, Bloomsburg, Kutztown, East Stroudsburg, (maybe others which FReeper alums will make me aware of if I've missed them, I'm sure.) Those are the actual state universities in PA.
Does the public have a right to know what your retirement benefits are?
Penn State is not part of the government, despite what some people think. Penn State is a private land grant, far more similar to Cornell or Rutgers than a state university, the suggestive name to the contrary notwithstanding. Pennsylvania has a state university system. It is not associated in any way with Penn State.
Some years ago, the judiciary ruled that because some PSU employees participated in the State Employees Retirement System, the pensions of (some) PSU employees should be public. PSU employees who opted for TIAA/CREF were not affected by the ruling. I believe the judge erred in that determination.
But even if I accept your point, the public is not entitled to believe that Penn State is paying this pension. It isn't. It has no power whatsoever to affect this pension by even one penny. The amount paid out, and loss of benefits when applicable is determined completely by law.
This headline, and this story is -- like most of the stuff published at PennLive.com -- a load of crap. This web site is a front for the Patriot News. That newspaper is an apologist for every bad liberal idea that has been brought up or imported into Pennsylvania for the last sixty years. There is virtually no other story printed in that rag that any conservative would credit, but, because it satisfies the blood lust of the Paterno haters, it's suddenly credible on conservative blogs.
Too bad Sandusky went on national tv; he probably has tainted most of the jury pool.
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