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Pensions Stay in City’s Hands

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Nine months following City Council’s December 31st pension bailout plan, which used a one time debt service transfer and pledged three decades of parking tax revenue ($13 million in the next few years, doubling in 2018) from the general fund to the pensions, the state Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC) has ruled that that plan constitutes an asset that satisfied the language of Act 44 of 2009. That language required the City to get its aggregate pension funded ratio (assets divided by liabilities) to a minimum of 50%. PERC’s assessment today puts the ratio at 62%.

Recall that Council vetoed the Mayor’s plan to have a long-term lease of parking assets to a private interest and opted instead for an "infusion of value" which relies on a long-term stream of payments instead of a lump-sum up front payment. If the plan had not worked and the pensions were below 50% funded, administration of the plans would have been transferred to the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System (PMRS).

Questions remain: many of these were pointed out in our first Policy Brief of 2011. For instance, since the promise of parking tax money, roughly $3 billion altogether, fell in the mid-range of the scenarios presented by PMRS, why was the City so afraid of a takeover? The state law clearly stated collective bargaining would remain at the City level. Also, where is the binding language that holds future City administrations and Councils to honor the promises of 2010? And, if we are to take the comments of the City Controller at face value when he said the bailout plan "is no long-term solution [but] a mechanism to avoid state takeover", then what is the long-term solution?

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