Payouts for teacher retirees to drop 3 percent
By WALTER C. JONESMorris News Service
The payout for teachers and professors who retire after the year's end will be 3 percent lower because the government is ending a bonus intended to offset state income taxes.
Teachers pensions were exempt from state taxes until 1989 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state must treat all retirees alike. But that tax has essentially disappeared as the General Assembly has raised the amount of all retirees' income that's exempt to $35,000 between ages 62 and 65 and to $65,000 for those 65 and older.
