LANSING – State officials are estimating as many as 19,000 teachers and eligible school personnel could retire under the incentive/penalty plan adopted by the Legislature.
The state had seen 16,000 retirement applications as of noon Friday, said Kurt Weiss , spokesperson for the Department of Technology, Management and Budget.
Weiss said the Office of Retirement Services had another 2,000 unopened packets related to teacher retirements, but he said it was unclear yet how many of those were new applications and how many provided supplemental information to an existing application.
Applications were being accepted online until midnight on Friday or by mail as long as they were postmarked by Friday. Weiss said the department was not expecting a final count on applications until as late as Thursday.
While a higher number than figures on Thursday had indicated, the retirement number would still be far short of the as many 27,000 officials had hoped would take advantage of the plan.
Some 55,000 teachers and school personnel are considered eligible for the retirement package.
The smaller number will affect total estimated savings that the Legislature and Governor Jennifer Granholm will have to calculate into the 2010-11 budget.
Meanwhile, lawmakers have not yet begun final action on a similar proposal that would affect state workers (SB 1226 ). Granholm back in January had proposed retirement proposals for school and state personnel.
Since the Legislature acted on the school proposal, state employees have been growing impatient to know when the Legislature will act on the state worker plan.
House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) told reporters on Thursday that he was receiving numerous emails from state workers urging action on the retirement proposal.
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