Take state taxes out of public pensions

In a letter, a retired schoolteacher seriously misstated how much of his annual pension benefits he has already paid state income taxes on .

He wrote, if pension distributions in retirement were taxed, it would mean "being taxed twice on the same income." The truth is, like almost every retired state and city teacher today, the writer paid 3 percent of his annual salary into the teachers' retirement fund only for the first 10 years he taught. Then if he taught another 20 years, he never paid in another dime. That means if he earned $25,000 on average for the first 10 years, he paid in $7,500 total toward his lifetime pension, and did pay state income tax on that sum. Analyses indicate that retired teachers have paid for about 5 percent of their lifetime pension, taxpayers have paid for about 50 percent and the rest has come from retirement-fund investment earnings.

If anything, 95 percent of the annual pension benefits of retired teachers in the state should be subject to state income tax.

Joel Katz

Port Washington