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Pension Collapse in Big D: The retirement fund for Dallas' public-safety workers is ruined
City Journal ^ | 12/14/2016 | Steve Malanga

Posted on 12/14/2016 8:01:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind

When Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013, the city’s emergency-financial team said that high levels of retirement debt could prevent them from rescuing the Motor City’s finances. Detroit had been in economic decline for decades, and the pension problem—including billions of dollars in bonuses handed out while the city was hurtling toward insolvency—was just one part of the depressing financial picture.

Dallas, by contrast, has been one of the fastest-growing American cities in recent years. Becoming a magnet for investment and opportunity, however, hasn’t protected the Texas city from experiencing its own Detroit-style financial crisis.

Dallas’s retirement system for cops and firefighters combines many of the features that have nearly sunk state and local pension plans around the country. Things got so dire over the summer that retirees began pulling their money out of the system. It’s the first run on a government pension plan in recent memory.

Dallas created the police and fire plan in 1916. The system’s trustees eventually persuaded the state legislature to allow employees and pensioners to run the plan. Not surprisingly, the members have done so for their own benefit and sent the tab for unfunded promises—now estimated at perhaps $5 billion—to taxpayers.

Among the features of the system is an annual, 4 percent cost-of-living adjustment that far exceeds the actual increase in inflation since 1989, when it was instituted. A Dallas employee with a $2,000 monthly pension in 1989 would receive $3,900 today if the system’s annual increases were pegged to the consumer price index. Under the generous Dallas formula, however, that same monthly pension could be worth more than $5,000. No wonder the ship is sinking. The system also features a lavish deferment option that lets employees collect pensions even as they continue to work and earn a salary.

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org:8080 ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: cashout; dallas; earlyretirement; pension; retirement
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1 posted on 12/14/2016 8:01:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Same mindset with both cities.


2 posted on 12/14/2016 8:03:05 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: SeekAndFind

City of Dallas proper isn’t “Dallas” the metropolitan area.

The City may even be Dem. Anyone know offhand?


3 posted on 12/14/2016 8:07:36 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: FreedomPoster

“The City may even be Dem. Anyone know offhand?”

The article states that the city is controlled by Dems, although many of the lavish retirement perks were approved by the Republican controlled legislature.


4 posted on 12/14/2016 8:09:52 AM PST by riverdawg
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To: riverdawg

The uniparty strikes again.


5 posted on 12/14/2016 8:18:25 AM PST by mewzilla (I'll vote for the first guy who promises to mail in his SOTU addresses.)
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To: SeekAndFind

There’s no easy or painless solution. The only thing is to allow it to collapse and pick up the pieces and start over, it seems to me.

Plenty of blame to go around but one thing is for sure: the people most responsible for this will suffer the least.


6 posted on 12/14/2016 8:18:28 AM PST by Paulie (America without Christ is like a Chemistry book without the periodic table.)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s easy to hand out other people’s money.


7 posted on 12/14/2016 8:22:17 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SeekAndFind

Dallas is chock full of liberals.


8 posted on 12/14/2016 8:24:04 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Cicero

Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio are the BLUE cities of Texas. Thank God they don’t have enough people to overcome the votes of the rest of Texas.


9 posted on 12/14/2016 8:26:06 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Let’s say that you invent a machine that freezes time in one area.

You can rob a bank, and freeze time there so no one finds out until after you die.

That’s how Democrats operate.

They steal because nobody will do anything about it until after they are dead.


10 posted on 12/14/2016 8:26:37 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: blueunicorn6

Good analogy.


11 posted on 12/14/2016 8:29:25 AM PST by econjack
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To: SeekAndFind

They should jail the politicias who set this up.

If you set up a pension in your business the way the government does, you would actually go to jail for it.

They take money from you for your pension, but instead of putting it onto a bank account for the future they spend it now- then promise to pay you out of the money that comes in when you retire.


12 posted on 12/14/2016 8:30:26 AM PST by Mr. K ( Trump kicked her ass 2-to-1 if you remove all the voter fraud.)
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To: FreedomPoster

It’s been blue for a minute. As has Austin, Houston, and San Antonio.


13 posted on 12/14/2016 8:32:46 AM PST by t4texas (No koolaid for me. Thanks!)
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To: SeekAndFind

In 2014 and 2015 the fund lost $370 million on investing activities with a loss of $238 million in 2015 alone. Benefits paid to members for those two years totaled $533 million. The fund hired its first Chief Investment Officer in mid 2015. That individual left after one year and the position remains vacant.

At this rate the future looks bleak. It reminds me of what former Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Jim Hightower once said about family farms: It’s still possible to make a small fortune in family farming provided you start out with a large fortune.


14 posted on 12/14/2016 8:34:48 AM PST by t4texas (No koolaid for me. Thanks!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Let them eat cake.

4% annual raises in pension plus a COL? That is what I read and it is absurd. Not enough money anywhere to fund that.

Just as bad as the feral gubment budget process.

To hell with them. Let them struggle like those of us in the private self-dunded retirement world.

This is yet another leveling of the playing field I can hope that Trump can chop down to size.


15 posted on 12/14/2016 8:36:11 AM PST by Sequoyah101 (It feels like we have exchanged our dreams for survival. We just have a few days that don't suck.)
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To: SeekAndFind
(from the article):" Dallas’s retirement system for cops and firefighters combines many of the features that have nearly sunk state and local pension plans around the country.
Things got so dire over the summer that retirees began pulling their money out of the system.
It’s the first run on a government pension plan in recent memory."

Correlated article, dated 12/13/16 :
99 Dallas officers have quit or retired in last 10 weeks, reports say"
www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/dallas/article120589238.html

" CBS 11 reported that most of the 99 who left since Oct. 1 were some of Dallas’ most experienced officers,
according to the incoming president of the Dallas Police Association."

16 posted on 12/14/2016 8:37:18 AM PST by Tilted Irish Kilt (Immigration is a priveledge ,.... not a right ! Tell that to O'Bungler and the U.N.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I pulled the numbers from the 5 counties I consider to be the Dallas ‘Metroplex’

DJT
200,395 - Collin
28,396 - Rockwall
261,865 - Dallas
345,683 - Tarrant
169,175 - Denton
Total = 1,005,514

HRC
139,837 - Collin
9,633 - Rockwall
458,845 - Dallas
288,001 - Tarrant
110,000 - Denton
Total = 1,006,316

Difference = 802 HRC

RECOUNT IT..! LoL


17 posted on 12/14/2016 8:41:13 AM PST by acw011 (Great Goooogly Mooogly!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Hahahaha. These public “workers” crapped in their nest. Their inappropriate benefit raises were from their greed and sappy politicians agreeing. Tough luck.


18 posted on 12/14/2016 8:46:58 AM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?.)
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To: FreedomPoster

Dallas is as Dem as Austin.


19 posted on 12/14/2016 8:47:49 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: t4texas
Many of the investments were to cronies and union backed projects. These losses accelerated a slowly growing problem.

Pension funds should never be run for the profit of those that control them.

20 posted on 12/14/2016 8:54:53 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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