Secretive T police pension bosses finally unlocked their list of annual payouts to retirees yesterday after stubbornly defying a court order, Herald public records requests and even calls from the Baker administration for transparency.
See the MBTA Police Pension report here
The long-awaited tally from the MBTA Police Association Retirement Plan comes as more taxpayer help is being sought. Highlights include:
• Former MBTA Transit Police Chief Paul S. MacMillan, who retired in November 2014, topped the list with an annual retirement benefit of $119,700. He was the only retiree with a six-figure amount.
• Former Deputy Chief Lewis Best, who retired in December 2013, was second on the list with a pension of $94,737.
• The longest continuous pension belongs to a T officer who has been receiving benefits since he retired on July 1, 1986. His annual pension is $13,276.
MacMillan and Best did not return messages seeking comment yesterday.
Greg Sullivan, the research director at the Pioneer Institute, said the bigger issue is the unfunded liability of the system, which taxpayers are also on the hook for.
“Beyond the numbers on that sheet, the MBTA riders and the taxpayers owe another $92 million for the MBTA police pension system,” said Sullivan. “They also owe $830 million for the regular pension system.”
The police retirement fund had fiercely fought efforts to make public its pension payroll, even though taxpayers spent $2.3 million on the system in 2015. Taxpayers are projected to have to shell out 25 percent more than that — a total of $2.9 million — next fiscal year.
“We are pleased that the PARP has taken this first step toward a more transparent operation, and we hope they will move quickly toward full compliance with the open records law that Governor Baker recently enacted,” MBTA Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve said in a statement.
The retirement fund has operated under an unusual cloud of?secrecy for a taxpayer-funded agency and finally divulged the pension information, kicking and screaming the entire way.
The fund denied requests from both the Herald and Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollack for the public release of the information in March 2015.
The fund’s executive director, Sidney Chase, declined to comment.
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