Here's something you might be interested in.
There are ways to help solve, or at least alleviate, San Diego's pension crisis. The question is whether greed and politics will stand in the way. For example, current City workers have been purchasing service credits -- buying pension benefits that they ordinarily would not deserve. Unfortunately, the pension system undervaled the amount these employees should pay, so even though the City employees paid the rate charged, it was far too little. Before the required payment was to be increased, the pension system told the employees to get in early before the rates went up. They did. This tragedy of errors adds another $146 million to the pension deficit, which is in the billions. Councilmember Donna Frye has suggsted that employees get their money back, pay more into the program or take less in the way of benefits. She is doing this herself. But the City workers' labor union is adamant: it's not going to happen. Mayor Jerry Sanders, attuned to politics and not the City's economic situation, sits shivering on the sidelines. On another front, the Internal Revenue Service has yet to give its blessings to retiree payments of roughly $175,000 a year to some well-paid personnel. So the pension system has shifted a $22.8 million liability of future retirees on to the City. Couldn't this be solved by rewriting pension plans so that nobody made that much money in retirement? There have to be sacrifices all around:infrastructure is in bad shape at the time in which the City has no money. There may have to be a tax increase to fund the City's aging infrastucture, but that cannot happen until all of these financial issues, including the pension debt, are addressed as part of a comprehensive recovery plan, says Frye. But that's political poison in San Diego.
There are ways to help solve, or at least alleviate, San Diego's pension crisis. The question is whether greed and politics will stand in the way. For example, current City workers have been purchasing service credits -- buying pension benefits that they ordinarily would not deserve. Unfortunately, the pension system undervaled the amount these employees should pay, so even though the City employees paid the rate charged, it was far too little. Before the required payment was to be increased, the pension system told the employees to get in early before the rates went up. They did. This tragedy of errors adds another $146 million to the pension deficit, which is in the billions. Councilmember Donna Frye has suggsted that employees get their money back, pay more into the program or take less in the way of benefits. She is doing this herself. But the City workers' labor union is adamant: it's not going to happen. Mayor Jerry Sanders, attuned to politics and not the City's economic situation, sits shivering on the sidelines. On another front, the Internal Revenue Service has yet to give its blessings to retiree payments of roughly $175,000 a year to some well-paid personnel. So the pension system has shifted a $22.8 million liability of future retirees on to the City. Couldn't this be solved by rewriting pension plans so that nobody made that much money in retirement? There have to be sacrifices all around:infrastructure is in bad shape at the time in which the City has no money. There may have to be a tax increase to fund the City's aging infrastucture, but that cannot happen until all of these financial issues, including the pension debt, are addressed as part of a comprehensive recovery plan, says Frye. But that's political poison in San Diego.