KC pension reform rolls ahead (just kidding)
Yael T. AbouhalkahKC City Manager Troy Schulte was given a new deadline today - Dec. 13 - to bring a final pension reform plan to the City Council.
It was the latest extension is what has become a long, long, long effort to overhaul the unsustainable pension systems that cover thousands of Kansas City workers.
The big hang up in behind-the-scenes negotiations right now, Schulte reported to council member Jan Marcason’s finance committee, is how to handle cost of living increases for retirees.
In the future, the city would like to make sure they aren’t automatically set at 3 percent a year, as is now the requirement in city ordinances.
Taxpayers could save millions of dollars a year by lowering the COLAs in years when the city budget is tight, or in years when inflation is low.
But, understandably, the city’s unions don’t like that approach and are fighting the COLA change. They already are being looked at under pension reform to kick in higher percentages of their pay to keep the city’s retirement plans more financially solvent.
Marcason has done a good job up to now in keeping the pressure on Schulte, Finance Director Randy Landes and union representatives to bring the council a pension reform proposal.
Something needs to be done by the end of the year to reduce taxpayer support for current and future defined benefit pensions for city workers.
And those changes should help make sure those retirees will actually get the money they were promised by the city.
Algernon Moncrief
6 months, 3 weeks agoCOLORADO COURT OF APPEALS CONFIRMS COLORADO PERA PUBLIC PENSION COLA BENEFITS AS CONTRACTUAL.
The Colorado Court of Appeals has reversed and remanded an initial District Court ruling that denied the contractual status of public pension COLAs in Colorado. The Court of Appeals confirmed that Colorado PERA pension COLA benefits are a contractual obligation of the pension plan Colorado PERA and its affiliated public employers. A huge victory for public sector retirees in Colorado! The Colorado Legislature may not breach its contracts and push taxpayer obligations onto the backs of a small group of elderly pensioners.
The lawsuit is continuing. Support pension rights in the U.S. by contributing at saveperacola.com. Friend Save Pera Cola on Facebook!
George Hunsucker
Northland
6 months, 3 weeks agoFew private pensions have COLA… it is just another example of how out-of-step public employees and their unions are.
May they lose their pensions just like the public employees in Greece if they refuse to recognize reality!!!!