State Must Pay Retirees $30 Million, Plus Interest

NEWS ARTICLE EXCERPT

By: Rick Bundrett, The State (Columbia, SC), June 2, 2006

The state has until July 1 to issue refunds - with interest - to about 14,000 working retirees who were forced to contribute toward their pensions, the S.C. Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The state collected more than $30 million from those retirees.

The five-member court unanimously rejected the state's request that it reverse its May 4 ruling ordering refunds to retirees who signed up for the Teacher and Employee Retention Incentive program before July 1, 2005.

The court's latest order set the refund interest rate at 6 percent. After the 30-day deadline, the rate jumps to 11.25 percent.

The state also will immediately stop deducting pension contributions from paychecks for the affected workers, said Michael Sponhour, spokesman for the State Budget and Control Board.

Most of the money will be returned in 30 days and all of it by August, Sponhour said.

"It's such an incredible sense of relief," said Sandra Balthis, a TERI worker who teaches U.S. history at Ridge View High School. "It's been an emotional roller coaster."

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