Jay Honeck wrote:

Of course, "retirement pay" comes out of a different bucket of cash in the
state's budget then "teacher's salary", so ON PAPER they LOOK like they
"saved the taxpayers some money"...

Typically, retirement pay doesn't come out of current taxes at all. The employer
sets a certain amount of money aside every year as a retirement account. Typically,
this money is invested in stock and bond accounts and will grow at the rate of
between 5% and 15% a year. Some government and education system pensions are keyed
to the market even after retirement - my mother's pension payments go up and down
with the stock market, and she has not tired of complaining about it for the last
three years.

In any case, salaries and benefits for those still working are paid for out of
tax revenue. This includes payments into the retirement account from which their
pensions will eventually come. Pension payments for retired people are not - they
are paid out of withdrawals from the pension funds. In part, they are pre-paid by
taxes that were paid during their period of employment, but the majority comes
from interest on the account.

George Patterson
Great discoveries are not announced with "Eureka!". What's usually said is
"Hummmmm... That's interesting...."