Without dissent, city councilors Tuesday agreed to hand out hefty cost-of-living pension hikes to retired municipal workers.
The supposed one-time increase will give about two dozen of the most lucratively compensated retired workers $4,200 more each year.
But most of the nearly 400 eligible retired workers will get lesser hikes, though everyone who gets a Bristol pension check will receive at least another $10 a month.
City Councilor Mike Rimcoski said he went along with the proposal because he was outnumbered anyway.
Besides, he said, “This is the retirees’ money and future retirees,” too.
The deal, which will bring more money to hundreds of retired general city employees, won’t cost taxpayers anything, officials said.
The money is coming out of a trust fund that has a staggering excess thanks to wise investments over the past 30 years. It currently contains more than $500 million, at least $150 million more than it’s expected to need.
The city has no obligation to raise pensions, but councilors opted to do it for the second time ever because the cost-of-living adjustment will help so many people.
The council agreed to hand out a hike consisting of 75 percent of the annual cost-of-living increase to pension funds for each year back to 2001, the first time any pension hikes were given.
That means that workers who were retired in 2001 would get up to 16 percent more each month, though nobody can get more than $350 extra monthly.
One member of the council, Democrat Frank Nicastro, abstained on the issue. He receives a city pension for his 10-year stint as mayor and 17 years as a truant officer.
Rimcoski said a few weeks ago that he wanted to raise the minimum that every retiree would get and to scale back the maximum payment. He said that would be more fair to everyone who is struggling to get by on a pension check.
But officials said it would be costly and difficult to revise the plan that consultants worked out last fall.
The council intended to pass the increase late last year, but had to delay it after lawyers realized that a municipal ordinance needed to be changed before the inflation adjustment could be made in retirees’ checks.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
Showing posts with label COLAs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label COLAs. Show all posts
March 13, 2008
City retirees likely to get more pension money soon
City councilors are poised to offer a hefty cost-of-living hike to retired municipal workers.
Though the city has no obligation to raise pensions, the City Council this week unanimously agreed to adopt a one-time increase this year.
Councilors did not say how much the hike might be or how much more it will cost.
To push through the cost-of-living adjustment, which was first talked about last fall, the council had to adopt an ordinance allowing the move. Councilors did that this week.
It appears the council will soon give a green light to the pension hike that they considered in December, which would provide some retired workers as much as $4,200 more each year.
There are nearly 400 retired workers covered by the general city retirement plan, which is the one the council is eyeing to tap to pay for higher pensions.
Because the trust fund that covers the retirees’ pensions has a whopping excess of money, experts have said the inflation adjustments won’t crimp taxpayers and won’t jeopardize the city’s ability to make pension payments in the future.
It would, however, make it a little harder to snatch tens of millions out of the pension account to fill a new health benefits fund that someday will cover the health care costs of future city retirees. That fund needs more than $75 million.
The general retirement fund has more than $500 million, which is far more than actuarial professionals estimate it will need. The fund has grown so large since its inception in 1978 that taxpayers no longer have to make any annual payments to keep it up.
There are more than 30 city retirees who receive pensions of more than $50,000 annually and at least one who collects twice that.
The cost-of-living adjustments are likely to cover the last five years or so, with more recent retirees getting less than the full amount.
The proposal that councilors considered adopting a few months ago would add 75 percent of the annual cost-of-living increase to pension funds for each year back to 2002, the first time any pension hikes were given.That means that workers who were retired in 2002 could get up to 16 percent more each month if the council endorses the idea. More recent retirees would get less.City Treasurer Bill Veits said that workers who retired in 2005, for example, will get 5.58 percent more, or two years’ worth of cost-of-living adjustments.About two dozen retirees would get the $350 maximum monthly increase while five would get the minimum of an additional $10 a month.
The city offered a cost-of-living hike to its retirees once before, in 2002, without going through the trouble of authorizing the move with a specific ordinance.
One member of the council, Democrat Frank Nicastro, abstained on the issue. He receives a city pension for his 10-year stint as mayor and 17 years as a truant officer.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
Though the city has no obligation to raise pensions, the City Council this week unanimously agreed to adopt a one-time increase this year.
Councilors did not say how much the hike might be or how much more it will cost.
To push through the cost-of-living adjustment, which was first talked about last fall, the council had to adopt an ordinance allowing the move. Councilors did that this week.
It appears the council will soon give a green light to the pension hike that they considered in December, which would provide some retired workers as much as $4,200 more each year.
There are nearly 400 retired workers covered by the general city retirement plan, which is the one the council is eyeing to tap to pay for higher pensions.
Because the trust fund that covers the retirees’ pensions has a whopping excess of money, experts have said the inflation adjustments won’t crimp taxpayers and won’t jeopardize the city’s ability to make pension payments in the future.
It would, however, make it a little harder to snatch tens of millions out of the pension account to fill a new health benefits fund that someday will cover the health care costs of future city retirees. That fund needs more than $75 million.
The general retirement fund has more than $500 million, which is far more than actuarial professionals estimate it will need. The fund has grown so large since its inception in 1978 that taxpayers no longer have to make any annual payments to keep it up.
There are more than 30 city retirees who receive pensions of more than $50,000 annually and at least one who collects twice that.
The cost-of-living adjustments are likely to cover the last five years or so, with more recent retirees getting less than the full amount.
The proposal that councilors considered adopting a few months ago would add 75 percent of the annual cost-of-living increase to pension funds for each year back to 2002, the first time any pension hikes were given.That means that workers who were retired in 2002 could get up to 16 percent more each month if the council endorses the idea. More recent retirees would get less.City Treasurer Bill Veits said that workers who retired in 2005, for example, will get 5.58 percent more, or two years’ worth of cost-of-living adjustments.About two dozen retirees would get the $350 maximum monthly increase while five would get the minimum of an additional $10 a month.
The city offered a cost-of-living hike to its retirees once before, in 2002, without going through the trouble of authorizing the move with a specific ordinance.
One member of the council, Democrat Frank Nicastro, abstained on the issue. He receives a city pension for his 10-year stint as mayor and 17 years as a truant officer.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
February 20, 2008
Ordinance panel decisions
I'll have more on some of this in the coming days, but here's a quick update on what the city's Ordinance Committee decided at tonight's meeting:
1. To recommend the City Council approve a new law that would bar child sex offenders from city parks and schools.
2. To urge the City Council to set a hearing date next month for a proposal that would combine the Blight and Code Enforcement committees.
3. To support a new law that would make it possible to offer retirees in the city's main retirement fund a one-time cost-of-living adjustment. This still needs City Council approval and the numbers have yet to be chosen.
4. To back Mayor Art Ward's call to shift the starting time for regular City Council sessions to 7 p.m., a half hour earlier than they currently begin.
5. To suggest that city councilors enact a new law that would crack down on shopping carts taken from store property.
6. To delay action on a proposal to regulate newspaper boxes for at least another month to consider possible changes to the statute wording.
I plan to put copies of the relevant proposals online here sometime soon. And I'll explain more about the decisions, too, when there's time to write up what happened.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
Proposed ordinances on agenda today
The city's Ordinance Committee will consider a handful of proposed municipal laws today.
First up for a public hearing, at 5 p.m., is a proposed statute aimed at keeping shopping carts from winding up in odd places.
Then, at 5:15, the long-delayed proposal to regulate the placement of newspaper boxes will be considered. I'm pretty sure they'll ignore my call for the city to pay for Bristol Press boxes on every street corner, but, hey, you never know.
At 5:30, the panel will consider Mayor Art Ward's request to move the starting time of the monthly City Council meetings up a half an hour so they can begin at 7 p.m. in the future.
Finally, at 5:45, the committee will take up a proposal to restrict registered sex offenders from going to city parks and schools.
It's possible there's another one at 6 about possible cost-of-living pension hikes for retired city employees. I didn't see that on the city's notice board, but the panel chairman, Craig Minor, said he thought it was slated to come up tonight, so it probably will.
The regular Ordinance Committee meeting is slated to begin at 6:30 in the meeting room outside the council chambers on the first floor of City Hall.
Anyone can come speak at the hearings, which won't start before the scheduled time, but could wind up beginning later if the earlier ones produce any delays.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
First up for a public hearing, at 5 p.m., is a proposed statute aimed at keeping shopping carts from winding up in odd places.
Then, at 5:15, the long-delayed proposal to regulate the placement of newspaper boxes will be considered. I'm pretty sure they'll ignore my call for the city to pay for Bristol Press boxes on every street corner, but, hey, you never know.
At 5:30, the panel will consider Mayor Art Ward's request to move the starting time of the monthly City Council meetings up a half an hour so they can begin at 7 p.m. in the future.
Finally, at 5:45, the committee will take up a proposal to restrict registered sex offenders from going to city parks and schools.
It's possible there's another one at 6 about possible cost-of-living pension hikes for retired city employees. I didn't see that on the city's notice board, but the panel chairman, Craig Minor, said he thought it was slated to come up tonight, so it probably will.
The regular Ordinance Committee meeting is slated to begin at 6:30 in the meeting room outside the council chambers on the first floor of City Hall.
Anyone can come speak at the hearings, which won't start before the scheduled time, but could wind up beginning later if the earlier ones produce any delays.
*******
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
December 12, 2007
Law needs revision before COLAs can be OK'd
The 393 city retirees who hoped to secure cost-of-living hikes in their monthly pension checks are going to have to wait awhile.
Edward Krawiecki, Jr, the city attorney, hit the brakes on the plan this week after outside counsel determined that handing out the hikes would violate existing city law.
So instead of giving a green light to the planned increases, which would provide some retired workers as much as $4,200 extra each year, city councilors agreed to ask the Ordinance Committee to revise the statute.
At least 25 retirees showed up at Tuesday’s City Council to lend their support to the proposed increase, which has the backing of the Retirement Board, Salary Committee and others.
Mayor Art Ward apologized to them for the delay. He said the legal opinion calling for an ordinance change didn’t come in until late in the day, leaving no time to let people know the plan wouldn’t be approved this week.
Ward said that he would make sure the public knows when the matter comes before the Ordinance Committee.
There doesn’t appear to be much opposition to tapping the $565 million pension funds to provide the cost-of-living increases, which will cost about $5 million total.
If anything were to derail the proposal as it exists now, it would likely be to lower the maximum hikes or raise the minimum increase, ideas that some officials and residents have expressed.
Resident Al Cianchetti said that he favors granting cost-of-living hikes to city retirees, but not those whose pension checks total more than $40,000-a-year already.
He said there are 30 city retirees eligible for a cost-of-living increase who are raking in more than $50,000 annually, but many other pensioners whose earnings are far lower.
The proposed hikes would add 75 percent of the annual cost-of-living increase to pension funds for each year back to 2002, the first time any pension hikes were given, apparently in violation of city law.
What the change means is that workers who were retired before 2002 could get up to 16 percent more money each month if the council endorses the idea. More recent retirees would get less.
Twenty two of the 393 retirees affected by the proposed change would receive the $350 maximum monthly increase while five will get $10 a month more, the minimum level set by officials.
The city has no obligation to give cost-of-living hikes to city retirees. But its pension funds are so flush that it can do it without much risk of running out of money for future payments.
*******
Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
Edward Krawiecki, Jr, the city attorney, hit the brakes on the plan this week after outside counsel determined that handing out the hikes would violate existing city law.
So instead of giving a green light to the planned increases, which would provide some retired workers as much as $4,200 extra each year, city councilors agreed to ask the Ordinance Committee to revise the statute.
At least 25 retirees showed up at Tuesday’s City Council to lend their support to the proposed increase, which has the backing of the Retirement Board, Salary Committee and others.
Mayor Art Ward apologized to them for the delay. He said the legal opinion calling for an ordinance change didn’t come in until late in the day, leaving no time to let people know the plan wouldn’t be approved this week.
Ward said that he would make sure the public knows when the matter comes before the Ordinance Committee.
There doesn’t appear to be much opposition to tapping the $565 million pension funds to provide the cost-of-living increases, which will cost about $5 million total.
If anything were to derail the proposal as it exists now, it would likely be to lower the maximum hikes or raise the minimum increase, ideas that some officials and residents have expressed.
Resident Al Cianchetti said that he favors granting cost-of-living hikes to city retirees, but not those whose pension checks total more than $40,000-a-year already.
He said there are 30 city retirees eligible for a cost-of-living increase who are raking in more than $50,000 annually, but many other pensioners whose earnings are far lower.
The proposed hikes would add 75 percent of the annual cost-of-living increase to pension funds for each year back to 2002, the first time any pension hikes were given, apparently in violation of city law.
What the change means is that workers who were retired before 2002 could get up to 16 percent more money each month if the council endorses the idea. More recent retirees would get less.
Twenty two of the 393 retirees affected by the proposed change would receive the $350 maximum monthly increase while five will get $10 a month more, the minimum level set by officials.
The city has no obligation to give cost-of-living hikes to city retirees. But its pension funds are so flush that it can do it without much risk of running out of money for future payments.
*******
Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
December 11, 2007
COLAs for city retirees delayed
City councilors did not approve the cost-of-living hikes sought for nearly 400 municipal retirees tonight.
City attorney Edward Krawiecki, Jr. said that a legal hitch arose this afternoon when lawyers spoke with an outside expert about the move.
Krawiecki said the city needs to revise its ordinances to allow the increase.
It doesn't appear the council has a problem with the request, but nothing is likely to happen until the ordinance panel takes up the matter.
*******
Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
City attorney Edward Krawiecki, Jr. said that a legal hitch arose this afternoon when lawyers spoke with an outside expert about the move.
Krawiecki said the city needs to revise its ordinances to allow the increase.
It doesn't appear the council has a problem with the request, but nothing is likely to happen until the ordinance panel takes up the matter.
*******
Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
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