Posted on 11/21/2016 11:02:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind
DALLAS — Picture the next major American city to go bankrupt. What springs to mind? Probably not the swagger and sprawl of Dallas.
But there was Dallas’s mayor, Michael S. Rawlings, testifying this month to a state oversight board that his city appeared to be “walking into the fan blades” of municipal bankruptcy.
“It is horribly ironic,” he said.
Indeed. Dallas has the fastest economic growth of the nation’s 13 largest cities. Its streets hum with supersize cars and its skyline bristles with cranes. Its mayor is a former chief executive of Pizza Hut. Hundreds of multinational corporations have chosen Dallas for their headquarters, most recently Jacobs Engineering, which is moving to low-tax Texas from pricey Pasadena, Calif.
But under its glittering surface, Dallas has a problem that could bring it to its knees, and that could be an early test of America’s postelection commitment to safe streets and tax relief: The city’s pension fund for its police officers and firefighters is near collapse and seeking an immense bailout.
Over six recent weeks, panicked Dallas retirees have pulled $220 million out of the fund. What set off the run was a recommendation in July that the retirees no longer be allowed to take out big blocks of money. Even before that, though, there were reports that the fund’s investments — some placed in highly risky and speculative ventures — were worth less than previously stated.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I have lived in/around Dallas for 30 years. Local corrupt politics (especially dems) are the norm.
Look at John Wiley Price. Should have been in jail 10 years ago. Keeps getting his trial date pushed out — why? Because all the downtown Dallas politicians are corrupt, and he has the info.
The hubris of Dallas Politicians is exactly like Washington. Money kept rolling in, and they still managed to bankrupt the pension plans.
WILL THEY FINALLY START PUTTING PEOPLE IN JAIL?
I'm entering my 20th year of living in North Irving, no sign of "self-destruction" here. Pay no heed to the large cities, the suburbs are where it's at.
Just raise taxes! /s
Only if the justification is logically the current need for life insurance premiums, and combat pay, and burial expenses.
But that WILL be remedied, I hope soon. More about that later...
The Dallas mayor has been a Republican since 2007.
Thanks for the input. Every little bit helps.
The only remaining threat, as I understand it, is the onerous State and property taxes and "fees." Last time I checked they seemed to be breathtaking.
Of course, some of the suburbs around Dallas are actually turning into fairly large cities. Arlington has over 300,000 people. Plano, Garland, and Irving are over 200,000, with Grand Prairie fast approaching the 200,000 mark. Phoenix is another metro area where the suburbs are growing into large cities. Mesa is over 400,000 now. However, the first suburb to actually grow to be larger than the major city next to it was Virginia Beach. It is now around 450,000, while neighboring Norfolk is only about 250,000.
Here is the problem with pensions for police and firefighters: The job is physically demanding (and emotionally draining), and they can’t work past a certain age. You can’t have 50-year-old cops trying to chase down and wrestle a 20-year-old guy. So, what to do? You can’t turn them loose with nothing.
Now pensions for bureaucrats who create nothing but paperwork and hassles... that’s a different matter.
No, Democrats have been running Dallas. Rawlings is a Democrat, votes and talks like one, same with prior mayors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Rawlings
Assumed office
June 27, 2011[1]
Preceded by Dwaine Caraway
Personal details
Born August 25, 1954 (age 62)
Borger, Texas, U.S.
Political party Democratic
All of Dallas mayors except one since about 1995 have been Democrat. Subrbs are very conservative but the city is not. Ethnic mix, crime rate and political party affiliation seem to all go hand in hand.
Its called desk jobs and support. NO EXCUSE giving them pensions at 50.
Building a golf course and grocery store is not the city’s job.
California once had the largest, richest, most productive agricultural valleys on earth, before the total insans Bugs and bunny crowd set about totally destroying it, together with the the utter stupidity of the lowest IQ legislature of any state in my long lifetime.
I clearly remember when California supplied 80% of all fruits and vegetables for the entire U.S. and exported a significant amount of the surplus.
All we got for that historic imbecility is a growing desert, a severe drought affecting tens of millions of PEOPLE, and totally wiped out "snail darter" population.
No great loss, couldn't even eat the useless suckers if any had survived the drought.
Thank you, imbeciles!
Housing costs are very low compared to CA. My 2400 SF home is listed on Zillow at $350K. You can buy a home by a canal in Valley Ranch (North Irving) for less than $450K. I've seen people move from CA and pay cash for their homes upon arrival.
My monthly mortgage & escrow payment is $1500. It will drop back to $1425 next year after the next escrow analysis. It's been very predictable.
Watch out for utilities, though...during the summer, the electrical bills are $300+/-. Our new a/c units are almost paying for themselves, as our old units had to run 24/7, and I saw a few electric bills at $600. The good news is we rarely see a brown out. We're on our own grid here in Texas.
The real problem with all of these government (and oftentimes private sector) pension funds is that its very politically expedient and self-serving to “kick the can” on reality by overinflating the “Expected Portfolio Return” estimates on how well the funds will perform. I once did an analysis on about 10,000 days of data over 40 years of start dates (abt 1962 to 2002) where I looked at how an investment in 10 year Treasuries would have done compared to an investment in the S&P 500 (with dividends and returns on top). In approx 480 instances (approx 4.8%) the S&P 500 investment would’ve outperformed the 10 year Treasuries investment by 5% or more; and on average by about 2% more.
Dallas has a built-in assumption that the “Expected Portfolio Return” will be 9.0%. So does my municipal fire/police pension fund. And so many funds all around the country tend to do their estimates in this range. In reality they should be doing their “Expected Portfolio Return” assumptions at around 4-5%. But they don’t because its not politically expedient to do so.
Right now the US Treasury 10 year bond is yielding approx. 2.34% so any pension fund manager who claims they can expect to do better than 7.34% is either ignorant or crooked.
Dallas is Democrat now. The Butcheress of Benghazi got 61% there and Trump just under 35%.
Well, I don’t think there are that many desk jobs. Should be a better solution than that.
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