Proposed NM educator retirement changes lead to outrage

From NM Politics.net - by Heath Haussamen - There’s outrage over a proposal that would require public education employees in New Mexico to pay more into their retirement funds and potentially work longer before they can retire. The Albuquerque Journal has the scoop on the proposal from the N.M. Educational Retirement Board: “Under the new proposal, all school employees would be required to increase their annual contributions to the pension fund by an additional half-percent of salary. Employees earning less than $20,000 each year would pay 8.4 percent; employees earning more would pay the fund 9.9 percent of their salaries. The half-percent would create about $14 million in new annual revenue for the retirement fund, said ERB Executive Director Jan Goodwin.“The program will also delay retirement for some. In order to retire, teachers and staff would be required to have at least 30 years of service to retire at age 60 or older; they would need 35 years of service to retire before then. Current eligibility allows retirement after 25 years of service or any combination of age and tenure that adds up to 75.” Read more

Proposed NM educator retirement changes lead to outrage