Public Sector Pigout: Terry Baker

Published August 30, 2010 4:00am ET



Government employees across America get outrageously generous pensions paid for by taxpayers. Here’s one of them.

Who’s pigging out: Terry Baker

Ingredients for the pig-out: Baker was employed by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

How big is this pig-out? $143,736 every year

Average annual private-sector retirement income:

$31,757

Who pays for this pension pig-out?: The taxpayers of California

How can this happen?: Public employee pensions in California are so generous the state now has a $535 billion unfunded future liability, equal to $36,000 for every household in the state. That’s more than the gross national product of Sweden, Switzerland or Saudi Arabia. California is not unique; have you checked your state’s public employee pensions lately?

Public Sector Pigout is researched and compiled by Mark Hemingway, an editorial page staff writer for The Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected].