St. Louis Beacon

Friday
Sep 10th
           | 
 
Home arrow Voices arrow Blogs arrow Beacon Backroom arrow City employee payments into pension system among the budget-trimming ideas floating around City Hall
City employee payments into pension system among the budget-trimming ideas floating around City Hall Print E-mail
By Jo Mannies, Beacon Political Reporter   
Posted 1:17 am Tue., 01.19.10

budget100cutssxci.jpgAmong the many budget dilemmas facing St. Louis City Hall -- where about $45 million needs to be reduced from the coming year's spending --  is one that already is plaguing other communities in Missouri and elsewhere:

How to handle the rising cost of government payments into pension plans for retired public employees.

St. Louis now requires no employee contributions for its pension system covering civilian employees. Firefighters and police officers contribute 8 percent and 7 percent of their pay, respectively. (City Hall has no control over the police pension system, because the department is controlled by the state.)

But one option that St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay's administration is floating would require employee contributions to the civilian-employee pension plan. According to the budget-cut idea list that his office is floating, employee contributions of 4 percent of their pay could save the city $10 million a year, and strengthen the stability of the system.

(A similar proposal was floated close to 40 years ago during the administration of then-Mayor John Poelker, a former city comptroller also concerned about rising pension costs. The idea was scuttled.)

Officials emphasize that this latest proposal would have no financial effect on current city retirees.

Introducing employee pension payments was the biggest-ticket option among those offered for discussion by Slay's staff.

Aides emphasize the options are simply that, and not outright proposals. (Comptroller Darlene Green and the Board of Aldermen also are expected to offer up their own budget-trimming lists.)

Still, the pension payment idea did come up last Friday in off-the-record discussions with some city aldermen, who noted that the city's contributions to its pension plans has quadrupled in less than 10 years.

It should be noted that St. Louis' pension systems are in better fiscal shape than some other Missouri communities, notably Springfield, Mo., where voters were asked last fall to hike their sales tax to pay for pension shortfalls.

But Slay underscored on his blog late Monday the significant role that the city's pension payments are playing in St. Louis' budget crunch.

As the mayor explained: "Like just about every other governmental jurisdiction, every household, every business, and every non-profit group, the city of St. Louis has less money because of the global recession. And because the employees, firefighter and police pension systems lost so much money when the stock market crashed, our pension costs are going up as well.

"That double whammy -– lower projected revenue and higher projected pension expenses -- will require the city to fill a budget gap of about $45 million in the next fiscal year, roughly 9 or 10 percent of the budget. That isn’t a catastrophe, but it is a challenge.

And it will require a stronger consensus than usual, because it will result in some things being less and different."

(Click here to read the mayor's full post.)

Even if the economy improves, Slay and his staff emphasize that so much pension money was lost during the stock market downturn that a sizable chunk can't be recovered.

Pension headaches also are plaguing the financially strapped states of Missouri and Illinois, which also have seen their pension payments shoot up because of the stock market losses. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn already has floated the idea of offering lesser pensions and benefits for future retirees.

By the way, the University of Missouri system recently began requiring its employees to contribute to their pension fund.

 

Only registered users can comment on an article. Please login or register.

< Newer post   Older post >

Editors' Picks

 

Beacon Backroom Blogroll


Intersections

intersections330detaildowntown.jpg

We all have our images, impressions of downtown, which makes it all the more interesting to see what catches an artist's eye as he walks around from the river past Union Station.

To see a larger, complete version of this work and others in the series, click here .

Political Calendar

Please note: The times shown on this page are correct for St. Louis time. The times shown when you click on an event are calculated by Google based on your time zone settings, if you are signed in to Google Calendar. If you are not signed in to Google Calendar, the times are shown in GMT, which is currently five hours ahead of St. Louis

@

Register to receive our daily email of new content.  If you're already registered, email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject line "subscribe".

 

Barroom Conversations

The St. Louis Beacon sponsors every-other-weekly conversations on race, related to the publication's year-long special coverage of issues and situations involving race in the St. Louis region. The lightly-moderated discussions begin with a specific topic, but like all good conversations, veer off in different and rewarding directions. The Barroom Conversations have been on  summer break, but resume on Monday, September 13 at 7:30 p.m.  at Six Row Brewing Co., 3690 Forest Park Avenue, at Spring. We look forward to seeing regulars and newcomers. Everyone is welcome

facebook2.jpg

Join the folks who have already found the Beacon on Facebook, the social networking site. See the most popular stories of the day, photos, videos and upcoming events. Visit the St. Louis Beacon page on Facebook and become a fan.

twitterbutton100sq.jpg

Twitter is a "microblogging" service where users can provide short updates about what they are doing. stlbeacon is our official Twitter feed – check it out to find our featured stories and the news that matters.

race100.gif

In St. Louis, race affects virtually every important aspect of community life. Yet it’s difficult to talk productively about race. Race, Frankly invites you to look at race with fresh eyes.

The Missouri History Museum, the Beacon and KETC/Channel 9 have partnered to create a yearlong series of events, in-depth articles and video pieces.

Read stories in the series.

rss75.gif

What's this icon? It's the standard icon for RSS.

RSS gives you another option for reading the Beacon, in a way that may be more convenient for you. As explained below, you can use our RSS feed to get alerts about new Beacon content. The Beacon's main RSS feed is here.

For more about RSS, read this quick introduction or watch this video: RSS in simple English.