Alabama Town’s Failed Pension Is A Warning

Prichard, Ala., presents a worst case for public pension funds: It stopped sending checks in 2009.

PRICHARD, Ala. — This struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund ran dry.

Last week, retirees asked the City Council for some help before Christmas. Then Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay its promised retirement benefits in full.

Since then, Nettie Banks, 68, a retired Prichard police and fire dispatcher, has filed for bankruptcy. Alfred Arnold, a 66-year-old retired fire captain, has gone back to work as a shopping mall security guard to try to keep his house. Eddie Ragland, 59, a retired police captain, accepted help from colleagues, bake sales and collection jars after he was shot by a robber, leaving him badly wounded and unable to get to his new job as a police officer at the regional airport.

Far worse was the retired fire marshal who died in June. Like many of the others, he was too young to collect Social Security. “When they found him, he had no electricity and no running water in his house,” said David Anders, 58, a retired district fire chief. “He was a proud enough man that he wouldn’t accept help.”

The NYT has deliberately distorted this story. They try to make it sound as if this is some 'normal' American city, it's not!

Prichard is a Predominately Black, corrupt, high crime, high unemployment, high welfare city that has been run by corrupt incompetent Black officials.

As an example, Prichard buys its city water from the city of Mobile but charges it's customers twice as much as Mobile because no-one is competent or responsible enough to fix the leaks in the Prichard water pipes.

The mayor was impeached for willful neglect.

Demographics

As of the census2 of 2000, there are 28,633 people, 9,841 households, and 7,272 families residing in the city. The population density is 435.4/km² (1,127.6/mi²). There are 11,336 housing units at an average density of 172.4/km² (446.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 14.18% White, 84.53% Black or African American, 0.30% Native American, 0.12% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.07% from other races, and 0.79% from two or more races. 0.57% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Prichard, Alabama

Prichard is an impoverished city which has been in a state of decline since the mid-60s, it has been riddled with financial problems, Alabama's highest continous per capita crime rate, and a population which has been fleeing for the last 40 years.

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