Posted on 01/24/2014 9:27:27 AM PST by MichCapCon
Detroit’s bankruptcy has meant that the city’s pensioners may receive less than what they expected. This has angered a lot of people and blame has been pointed in many directions. There are a lot of reasons why Detroit’s pension systems are in poor shape and there is plenty of blame to go around.
The most basic reason that pensions are underfunded in Detroit is simple: the city did not properly fund the system. During good times, the city oversold benefits and its assumptions have proven ineffective at keeping pensions funded during bad times.
A retirement system can offer generous pensions and weather bad markets if it uses accurate assumptions and good practices. Detroit did not.
Pension board members adopt a series of assumptions with advice from its selected actuaries. These assumptions are used to predict the amount of money necessary to set aside today to pay for the pensions earned by the employees working today. If gaps between what employees have earned and what the city has set aside develop, the assumptions are also used to estimate the amounts needed to catch up.
In the Detroit General Retirement System, returns over the past seven years have been 3.9 percent, according to my calculations based on their financial statements. The assumed rate of return was 7.9 percent. The long-term discrepancy has meant that the system is underfunded. These unfunded liabilities will be paid off over 30 years. Since the average age of members in this system is 48, this is beyond the average longevity of current employees.
In the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System, returns over the past seven years have been 4.6 percent. The assumed rate of return was 8 percent. Unfunded liabilities will be paid off over 29 years.
Another way of dealing with volatility has been to adopt gains and losses over a moving number of years. Detroit’s asset-smoothing assumptions go for seven years. With the substantial lags between when they perform and accept their actuarial valuations, they have only recently started realizing the losses from the 2009 recession, which will continue to weigh down asset values for the next few years.
It’s very important to get this right. The Michigan Constitution mandates it. The second part of Article IX, Section 24 states, “Financial benefits arising on account of service rendered in each fiscal year shall be funded during that year…” That is, when an employee earns a dollar’s worth of pension, his or her government employer needs to set aside enough money to pay for it. Depending on the assumptions, the government might only need to set aside a quarter today to pay for that dollar later, depending on when the employee starts collecting a pension, how long they expect to collect, and how much the government can get in returns on its savings.
Those returns, however, are volatile. The constitutional language does not stipulate that pensions should be funded unless a recession happens — it says that pensions should be funded as they are earned.
Managers, however, are hesitant to change estimates about the future, even when these assumptions have been shown to be ineffective. Doing so can make the gaps appear larger or require more cash to be put in the system. Given Detroit’s insolvency, these assumptions are unlikely to change even if they have been responsible for the gaps.
On top of assumptions that have underfunded the system, the city oversold during good times. The often-lamented 13th checks depleted down city funding just as optimistic assumptions ensured underfunding during bad times.
What separates Detroit from the other governments with underfunded pensions systems is its insolvency. Other governments generally have cash to pay their debts as they come due. Detroit does not. It’s in the situation that the 1963 constitutional provision was meant to avoid. In leading the systems to this point, pension board members failed in their basic duties.
Detroit’s retirement boards are comprised of mayoral and city council appointees plus some member-elected representatives. The boards have changed and there are new people on the city council. The smoothing and return assumptions, however, remain unchanged.
One way of dealing with this is to freeze and close the pension system, a reform Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is pursuing. Defined-contribution plans do not require politicians to make bets on the future. By converting to one of these retirement systems, Orr wants to prevent this situation from developing again.
I’ll bet it’s more or less the same reason that the former mayor of detroit has been sent to prison for 3 decades.
Here’s the answer:
Last Republican mayor elected in 1957—Louis Miriani:
It’s under funded because they didn’t put enough money into it? And someone needed a whole article to state something this obvious?
irresponsible DEMOCRAT POLS wanting to buy votes of their union lackies over the last 50 years....duh...
The same thing happened in NJ!
The democrat politicians got government workers to vote, advocate, agitate, and most likely harass opponents by handing them undeserved salaries and benefits and promising them gold plated pensions. The government workers made their pact with the devil and are now looking at his due. Frankly I wish cities not in bancruptcy could give the pensioners a haircut.
I thought “Bankrupt”, meant “BANKRUPT”...like in Monopoly! If the city has no money, how can they pay pensions?
>>Why Detroit Pensions are Underfunded<<
Democrats.
They still have tax income, just not enough to cover all the debts so a state appointed manager gets to decide what debts get paid with the limited resources. Were it me, bondholders would be on top, vendors second in line, and salaries and pensions all the way down at the bottom. My attitude would be “don’t like it, quit”. I think it would be a great way to reduce the size and scope of government if nobody will work for it.
The retired city employees need to sue the Democrat party. They’re the ones who kept making impossible promises. I guarantee that the Democrat party will never run out of money.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.