In the world of state teachers union executive compensation, the Michigan Education Association has among the highest-paid executives in the nation.

Using union reports filed with the U.S. Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service, Michigan Capitol Confidential looked at the base salary of many of the other state teachers unions leaders.

The latest salary information available was through 2011. The highest-paid state teacher union president was Richard Iannuzzi of the New York State United Teachers. He made $269,788 in 2011. Former MEA President Iris Salters made $235,447 in 2011.

The New York state teachers union has 592,256 members, more than three times the membership of the 153,938 member MEA.

Doug Pratt, MEA spokesman, didn’t return emails seeking comment.

Salters’ salary in 2011 was about $48,000 higher than Pennsylvania Education Association President James Testerman’s $187,392 annual pay. Pennsylvania Education Association Vice President Michael Crossey made $210,213 as its highest-paid employee. Pennsylvania’s teachers union had 192,032 members, about 38,000 more than Michigan.

Florida’s teachers union had about 12,000 fewer members than Michigan. Florida Education Association Manager Alfreda Davis made $227,997 in 2011.

Ohio Education Association President Patricia Frost Brooks made $125,825 in 2011 and oversaw 126,953 members. But Ohio Education Association Executive Director Larry Wicks made $182,944 as the union’s highest-paid employee.

"She (Salters) deserved every penny," said Leon Drolet, chairman of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance. "She has done the absolute best at exploiting the taxpayers and children to maximize extraordinary generous benefits for her members. If the standard of judgment is how much they took away from the taxpayers and children and given to some of the most excessive benefits in the country, she was probably underpaid."

Since Salters left office, Steven Cook took over as MEA president. Cook made $196,594 in 2011 as the MEA’s vice president. That was more than the state presidents in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota and Ohio.

The American Federation of Teachers-Michigan President David Hecker made $131,123 in 2011. The AFT has 35,000 members in Michigan.

The California Teachers Association had 325,000 members and Executive Director Carolyn Doggett’s $221,612 salary was the highest for that state as of 2009 — the latest year salary information was made public. In comparison, in 2009 Salters' base pay was $280,598.

A bill under consideration by the Michigan Legislature, House Bill 5726, would allow local governments to borrow money to cover unfunded liabilities in their defined benefit pension systems, but only if they close their plans to newly-hired employees (in most cases providing them instead with a 401(k)-type plan).

The goal of getting out of the defined benefit government pension benefit racket could not be more laudable, but there are problems with using this approach to do so.

These pension obligation bonds are supposed to allow governments to borrow at a low-rate interest and invest at a higher rate of return. The gains are used to pay for gaps in pension funding. The problem is that investment gains are not guaranteed but the interest on those bonds is. Taxpayers get whipsawed if investments don’t pan out.

It amounts to buying stocks on margin, an inherently risky proposition, but possibly worth doing if it helps more local governments place themselves on a glide path to gradually eliminating employee legacy costs.

As mentioned, governments across the state and country have underfunded these pension plans, placing taxpayers on the hook for what Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute estimated to be $4.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

Unfortunately, while House Bill 5726 requires that a local government close its defined benefit pension plan, it offers taxpayers no guarantee that the plans will stay closed. Indeed, short of a state constitutional amendment prohibiting governments at all levels from providing new employees with defined-benefit retirement benefits — a proposal with great merit — governments are free to abandon their commitment to a defined contribution system. That's because what a legislative majority and governor enact today could just as easily be un-enacted later by a different governor and legislature.

With that caution in mind, any pension bond bill should include language prohibiting a local government from re-opening a defined benefit pension system once it has been closed, or creating any new plans of this type.

Some local politicians, especially ones in communities approaching fiscal insolvency, are desperate for cash and ready to impose higher debt burdens on their residents. The reward of closing government pension systems may be worth the risk, but only if this potential loophole is closed in a convincing manner.