Gettin' out while the gettin's good

The Hempfield Area School District is expecting nearly 90 employees (mostly teachers) to retire this year, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

This is a district where the average salary is $75K per year after 12 years. So why are there so many retirements this year?

According to Hempfield Area Education Association union president Joe Scheuermann: "With the cost of health care, people are worried about whether that will be in future contracts," Scheuermann said. "So they're retiring under this contract to lock in that benefit."

Gettin' out while the gettin's good!

As a regular reader of PolicyBlog, you know that these pension and healthcare costs are going to be major burden on the taxpayers (the latter of which has yet to be fully quantified).

Hempfield taxpayers may think that having nearly 90 employees retire will relieve their property tax burdens. They better think again.