A former president of the University of Massachusetts system, William M. Bulger, has been lambasted since he won a bigger pension in court last November. Now 16 other retired and active public-college presidents in the state are following Mr. Bulger’s example, reports the The Republican, a newspaper in Springfield, Mass.
Mr. Bulger’s annual pension was increased by $17,000, to $196,000, when the state’s highest court ruled that his pension level should include a housing allowance as a form of income. The state’s Board of Retirement is likely to grant similar requests from the 16 other executives, said the state treasurer, Timothy P. Cahill, because of the court’s ruling.
“I don’t think any of them need it,” Mr. Cahill said of the requests, but “it’s certainly theirs as much as it was Bulger’s.” —Paul Fain
