Tag: firefighters

Springfield will make extra payment to police, fire pension funds

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://newschannel20.com/news/local/springfield-will-make-extra-payment-to-police-fire-pension-funds

Excerpt:

The City of Springfield is going to make an extra payment to their growing fire and police pension funds, but this is only going to make a small dent in the overall pension costs.

During the Springfield City Council meeting on Tuesday. Feb. 16, the aldermen voted in favor of making a $589,323 payment to the police and fire pension funds.

The reason they can make this move is because their corporate fund balance was over 20% after closing the books on Fiscal Year 2020 last August, but Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder said this is small.

Author(s): Tessa Bentulan

Publication Date: 16 February 2021

Publication Site: News Channel ABC 20

Editorial | Legislative lunacy

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-legislative-lunacy/article_967b0ad5-3d2e-544a-b7ae-83f75d384af4.html

Excerpt:

When it comes to politics and government, Chicago is a force unto itself. Its strengths and weaknesses are, mostly, of its own making.

But the city was recently victimized by the General Assembly, and it’s important for the people of Illinois to know why. What happened speaks to a serious problem — a Legislature seemingly untethered to reality.

…..

Unfortunately, state legislators voted during the recent lame-duck session to increase retirement benefits for 2,200 Chicago firefighters.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, as a newspaper headline put it, objected “strenuously” to the Legislature’s action.

She correctly described it as a “massive unfunded mandate to the taxpayers of Chicago at a time when there are no funds to cover this new obligation.”

Publication Date: 22 January 2021

Publication Site: The News-Gazette

Editorial: Vote-conscious aldermen embrace a fiscally unsustainable pension idea

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-vote-conscious-aldermen-embrace-a-fiscally-unsustainable-pension-idea/article_f4050760-f8bc-575d-9995-cb0fa5112f1c.html

Description: Editorial saying that St. Louis, Missouri aldermen are considering merging locally-controlled pension plan for firefighters with state-controlled plan, which will make pension costs skyrocket again.

Excerpt:

A major problem in controlling costs was that the pension was under state control. Firefighters were historically very successful at lobbying state lawmakers for generous benefits, regardless of how much it cost city taxpayers. The city passed pension reform legislation in 2012 creating a new, locally controlled pension system for newly hired firefighters. Existing and retired firefighters stayed in the old system. By 2020, costs dropped back down to $12.4 million, less than half of their 2013 peak.

Publication Date: 23 January 2021

Publication Site: St. Louis Post-Dispatch