Teacher Retirement System should reveal price tag for its luxury offices
AUSTIN -- Perhaps they’ve forgotten who’s paying the bills.
In a stunning display of arrogance, the taxpayer-funded Teacher Retirement System plans to move its offices into one of Austin’s most upscale towers — and refuses to tell the public how much we’re paying for these luxurious digs.
Reporting by the Statesman’s Bob Sechler indicates the typical rate for tenants at Indeed Tower, under construction on West Sixth Street, will be about $65.50 per square foot — higher than the average downtown office rate of $61.50 per square foot, and well above the $24.50 per square foot the Texas Facilities Commission pays for other state agencies’ office space in Austin, much of it outside downtown.
We cannot justify that kind of spending on top-shelf office space for any public agency, let alone one that failed for years to properly balance the pension fund’s investment earnings and costs, leading to an estimated $46 billion shortfall in benefits owed to retirees. Those problems had real-life implications for hundreds of thousands of school retirees, some of whom have gone up to 15 years without a cost of living adjustment, even as their everyday expenses have risen.
The secrecy around the lease is equally galling: State agencies routinely disclose their lease costs because it is part of doing business with taxpayer money. But the Teacher Retirement System claims it needs to keep its lease amount secret so it can shop for additional office space without landlords knowing what the agency would be willing to pay.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/opinion/20190911/editorial-trs-should-reveal-price-tag-for-its-luxury-offices