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Show State of Utah Has 18 Separate Public Retirement Programs in Operation With the adoption In 1949 of a retirement plan permitting all public employees In Utah not belonging to another retirement plan to participate, Utah now has 18 separate public retirement systems, it was stated in a research re-search report released today by Utah Foundation, the non-profit private tax research agency. Only On-ly one of these 18 plans, the State Teachers' Retirement System, was set up by competent actuaries, the report states. , Where no adequate actuarial study has been made, it is pointed point-ed out that no one knows the extent ex-tent to which operating deficits of a retirement program may grow. For example, besides matching the 2 employee contribution, con-tribution, it has become necessary neces-sary for the Salt Lake Board of Education to make deficit appropriations ap-propriations totaling $69,493 to the Salt Lake Teachers' Retirement Retire-ment Fund from 1946 to 1948 $19,157 in 1946, $24,154 In 1947, and $26,182 in 1948, and it is estimated that $34,000 annual deficit will be incurred by 1957 if present rates are continued. The Utah Foundation report states that under the new state retirement plan, a public employee em-ployee who has worked 30 years and whose salary has averaged $200 a month would contribute $2,160 over the 30 year period and would receive $100 a month at age 60. A private life annuity of $100 a month at age 60 would cost a man approximately $13,620 and a woman $14,970, compared with $2,160 which would be paid by the employee and matched by a like amount paid by the state under the state retirement plan. Employee contributions to the actuarially planned State Teachers' Teach-ers' Retirement System range from 7.18 to 19 per cent of the teachers' salaries. For the nine remaining re-maining non-actuarial public retirement re-tirement systems, employee contributions con-tributions range from 1 to 3& per cent of their salaries, according to the report. In order that the Salt Lake Teachers' Retirement Association will be able to meet future retirement re-tirement benefit payments, a recent re-cent actuarial study recommended recommend-ed that the present total contribution contrib-ution rate of 4 per cent be increased in-creased to 9.07 per cent, including includ-ing a deficiency rate. Key to the financial troubles of the Salt Lake plan is found in the case histories of eight teachers belonging to the Salt Lake Teachers' Retirement Association, Asso-ciation, who retired between 1920 and 1927. Their contribu-tions contribu-tions ranged from $186 to $330. These same individuals have received re-ceived pension payments thus far totaling from $11,673 to $17,136. On several occasions it has been necessary to reduce the pension payments to retired Salt Lake and Ogden teachers because be-cause of insufficient funds in recent re-cent years. There are 199 teachers now receiving retirement benefits under un-der the Salt Lake City teacher retirement plan with 925 active teaching and supervisory personnel per-sonnel in the Salt Lake City district dis-trict The ratio of retired teachers to active teachers in Salt Lake City increased from .44 in 1910 ;o 4.01 In 1930, and to 21.51 by 1948; for Ogden, whose retirement re-tirement plan started in 1934, the ratio Increased from .16 in 1935 to 7.31 in 1945, and to 9.94 by 1948. The 1949 Legislature opened the fctate retirement system to employees of local government units electing to participate. The Legislative Council was directed to have an Actuarial study of the plan made prior to the next regular legislative session. The Utah Foundation report underlines under-lines the Importance of this actuarial ac-tuarial study to prevent deficit problems to the state or to cities and counties which elect to par-Iticlpate. |