Early Retirement

Baltimore city school officials are encouraging as many as 750 of the city's most experienced teachers to retire by April — a measure that school officials say will help mitigate budget shortfalls and prevent potential layoffs as the system girds for an expected reduction in teaching positions next year. In a letter sent Friday to 3,200 eligible teachers, the school system outlined details of an early-retirement buyout program that would allow between 350 and 750 teachers with more than 10 years' experience to leave the system and receive 75 percent of their current annual salary over a five-year period.

After reporting a projected $8 million revenue shortfall in late January, when he announced an early retirement incentive program for county workers, Harford County Executive David Craig said Tuesday that he doesn't expect further drastic action during the fiscal year - despite $3 million in snow-removal costs and a $1.3 million decline in state income tax payments in February. "We've been pragmatic," he said, by leaving nearly 300 open county jobs vacant and attracting nearly 50 older county workers to the early retirement program.

One Maryland county is willing to sacrifice some of its most experienced employees to help close an $8 million budget gap and avoid layoffs. Facing the same revenue shortfalls afflicting all levels of government, Harford County is offering a generous early retirement package to its oldest and longest-serving employees. About a third of the county's 1,000 workers are eligible, and their departures could save the county as much as $5 million. County officials are coping with a nearly 14 percent decline in income tax revenues this year and hoping the buyouts will help them balance a nearly $765 million budget.

One Maryland county is willing to sacrifice some of its most experienced employees to help close an $8 million budget gap and avoid lay-offs. Facing the same revenue shortfalls plaguing all levels of government, Harford County is offering a generous early retirement package to its oldest and longest serving employees. About a third of the county's 1,000 workers are eligible, and their departures could save the county as much as $5 million. County officials are coping with a nearly 14 percent decline in income tax revenues this year and hoping the buyouts will help them balance a nearly $765 million budget.

John C. "Jack" Haigh, a career banker who had been president and CEO of Baltimore Bancorp, died of gall bladder cancer Sunday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. The former longtime Towson resident, who had lived for the past several years in New Freedom, Pa., was 79. Born and raised in Abington, Pa., Mr. Haig was a 1952 graduate of Villanova University. He began his banking career that year with Commercial Credit Corp., where he remained for the next two decades. He later worked for Mercantile Bank and the First Chicago Bank before joining the Savings Bank of Baltimore in 1975.

Afraid swindlers might ruin your plans for early retirement? The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is recommending that employers and older workers check out two online resources developed to protect you from scam artists who try to lure you into cashing retirement investments early, with misleading promises of big financial returns and comfy retirement lifestyles that can't be sustained. The financial education effort was launched after two recent enforcement actions taken against early-retirement scams.

When I hear my fellow baby boomers gleefully talk about their elaborate plans to retire ASAP, head for the Tuscan hills, or otherwise continue their lifelong quest for "self-actualization," I have to bite my tongue. It's not that I'm all work and no play. But there's just something - make that lots of things - wrong, in general, with retiring at 55, 62 or even 65. I would go so far as to call it profoundly selfish and unpatriotic. Dropping out of the work force while still in one's prime means ending one's contributions to America's strength, mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's future and leeching trillions of taxpayer dollars from the economy.

Louis Akers Jr., vice chairman and former chief executive of Ferris, Baker Watts Inc., has taken early retirement from the Baltimore brokerage, making him the highest-ranking executive to leave since federal investigators began probing the company's trades on behalf of a former customer accused of fraud. A Ferris spokeswoman said Akers' retirement began Friday, ending a nearly 18-year career with one of the nation's largest remaining regional brokerage houses. Nearly four months ago, Akers, 55, joined five other top executives and traders in taking temporary leave from the company.

Ford Motor Co. appears ready to shift its restructuring plan into a higher gear this week, offering early retirement and buyouts to white-collar workers and speeding up plant closings. With Ford's board scheduled to meet tomorrow and Thursday in Dearborn, Mich., salaried employees were bracing for a new round of staff cuts that could be announced as early as Friday. This week's board meetings will be the first for Alan R. Mulally, lured from Chicago-based Boeing Co. last week to take the No. 2 spot at struggling Ford under Chairman William Clay Ford Jr., great-grandson of the company's founder.