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Monday, June 29, 2009
New report highlights growth in city pension and health-care costs

With the city's municipal labor contracts set to expire at midnight tomorrow, a new report was released this morning on the critical state of Philadelphia's pension fund and challenges resulting from high employee health-care costs. It states that total spending on pensions and health care is now at $830 million, and will rise to almost $1.1 billion by 2013.

The report is a follow up to one released early in Nutter's term, and was funded by the same organization, Pew Charitable Trusts.

Among the findings highlighted in the press release is that the city's pension fund has less than half the money needed to meet its obligtation to past and current city workers - a situation that is not new.

To read the press release and report, go here: www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

Posted by Marcia Gelbart @ 10:26 AM  Permalink | 8 comments
Comments   
Posted 01:39 PM, 06/29/2009
CleanupPhilly
DROP still further defunds the city pension by allowing city employees to stop paying into the pension fund. Because Council voted to continue DROP, this underfunding continues. The state should not allow a pension refi or payment delay until the city Council ends DROP.
Posted 03:21 PM, 06/29/2009
CleanupPhilly
There's not going to be a way for the city to simply avoid collecting overdue property taxes at foreclosure anymore. It's not true that this property "has no value" or "can't be sold" or that "past auctions" didn't result in much money paid. It's how Street got a surplus, in fact. It wasn't from tiny real estate transfer taxes, it was from the mass payoff of huge overdue property taxes at closings of blighted property fetching high prices during the boom. That real estate is still valuable. Witness the auctions at the Murano. Why is the city only sheriff selling the worst property in the city, first? Why not compare sales prices and call for the city to sell the property that owes the most in the most valuable neighborhoods? Right now the city does the reverse. Why? It's obvious that the system is broken. Half a billion in unpaid property taxes is completely unsustainable, and this money if it had been collected years ago and put into the pension plan would have resulted in a more solvent plan that accrued big interest during a booming stock market. City employees would be in a better position now. Are we just going to cut health benefits radically because the press allows the city to claim that the money "is not there?" They're going to cut lifetime health benefits for city retirees from five to three years because "the money is not there." Meanwhile, the money is there in overdue property taxes, and the press won't investigate why it's not being collected and put into the city pension.
Posted 03:27 PM, 06/29/2009
CleanupPhilly
Also, city employees don't get social security in some cases. A city pension is all they have. Nutter and Council want to pretend they are doing something by collecting $74 million in overdue business taxes, but that gets less than what the city spends on supportive crisis housing. $522 million is owed in overdue property taxes. Foreclosure is not a dirty word -- it cleans up blight at no city cost, it gets fresh property tax paying owners in, and it pays for schools, pensions, and services, etc. It's time for the city to reap, and for the press to do an independent analysis of sheriff sales in the city that relies on objective data, including market data. People can pay their property taxes, I find, when compelled to. Why is the city government, even reformers, studiously avoiding this issue?
Posted 04:15 PM, 06/29/2009
Smokey
Police officers and Firefighters don't get Social Security.
Posted 04:17 PM, 06/29/2009
Smokey
The real reason for the city's pension problems is not the employees. Read this excerpt from the Pew Report: Over the years, the city has not put enough money into the pension fund to pay for the benefits it has promised its workers. That history of underpayment had put the fund in worse shape than most others even before the market crashed.
Posted 06:05 PM, 06/29/2009
ephraim
cleanupphilly shouldn't speak about things he/she knows nothing about.
Posted 06:07 PM, 06/29/2009
ephraim
cleanupphilly shouldn't talk about things he/she knows nothing about
Posted 04:10 AM, 06/30/2009
FJG JR
Hey ephraim, your the very people who just doesn't get it. Your head is in the same sand as the person who tells you who to vote for. Just keep quiet and listen.
8 comments
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The Philadelphia Inquirer's Jeff Shields, Marcia Gelbart, and Patrick Kerkstra take you inside Philadelphia's City Hall.
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