Well, here’s some good news. At this point it looks like contributions for
the upcoming fiscal year, which kicks off July 1, will be down for the county’s
three pension plans, according to county Finance Director Chris “Money Bags”
Caldwell.
Here’s how it’s looking:
Last year (technically in this current budget), the county contributed $3
million for what’s dubbed the “old county” or “DB” plan, which closed in 1991. This
year, the county is expected to contribute between $2.7 million and $2.9
million.
The county also last year kicked in $1.7 million for the old school plan,
which it assumed from the city and closed in the late 1980s. This year, it will
put up between $1.3 million and $1.5 million.
The county contributed $4.5 million into the Uniformed Officer’s Pension
Plan, or UOPP, which closed to new employees at the beginning of this year.
(The $4.5 million does not include bond payments, which were needed to get the
plan up and running.)
This year, the county is expected to contribute between $3.7 million and
$3.9 million.
That means the overall savings for the two plans could range between
$900,000 and $1.5 million.
Caldwell said the decrease comes as the county’s investments exceed their
expected interest rates for calendar year 2013. The county’s expected rate of
return on its investments is 7 percent, which is pretty reasonable and fairly
conservative compared to the rest of the nation.
So, as a taxpaying entity, we the citizens can't afford a pension plan for our civil servants, but we can afford high priced consultants for our school system who tell us to give more to the private sector and less back to the citizens? Are we supposed to be happy about this?
ReplyDeleteWell, if you'll notice we technically don't have pension plans as they're all closed, although those on are grandfathered in. The rest are on an "asset accumulation plan," which operated much like a 401(k).
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