In this article it states, “According to an actuarial report submitted to the City Council last year, the city was allocating about 9 percent of its $280 million to its pension plans”. That number is not true. The city budget in 2013 was $124.1 million. The school budget in 2013 was $156.2, for a combined $280.3 million in spending. If the city is going to calculate the ration of pension spending to the total general fund budget they should also add in the amount allocated to pensions from the school budget. In reality the percentage of dollars allocated to pensions in the city budget is: $25.3 million city pension expense / $124.1 million city budget = 20.3% If you add in the $8 million for retired employee healthcare costs the percent increases to approximately 27% of the budget. Why Mayor Avedisian would do this is obvious - to hide the extent of the problem. The fact that the hired actuarial firm would distribute this information to the city council in its actuarial reporting is a whole other topic that needs exposure.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 20:56:05 +0000