For politicians who get awfully riled up about exposed genitalia in the Castro or what to call our local airport, the good folks at City Hall sure do have a knack for looking the other way when it comes to matters of huge financial import. <\/p>\n
Take the city's $4.4 billion unfunded liability to pay for health care for its employees and retirees over the next 30 years. <\/p>\n
A new report from the Pew Charitable Trust crunched figures for the largest city in each of the country's 30 most populous metro regions for a look at how they're faring when it comes to affording the tab on their pension and retiree health care obligations. <\/p>\n
On the pension front, San Francisco isn't doing too badly. After the city focused intensely on the issue in 2011 and voters passed a ballot measure making changes to the system - and, after investment returns started improving after the Great Recession - San Francisco's pension system is 97 percent funded. <\/p>\n
To cover the gap, each household in the city would have to fork over $1,677. <\/p>\n
Just Washington, D.C. is doing better, having enough money on hand to pay 104 percent of its pension obligations. Each household there could get $646 back, and the pension fund would break even. Who says everything in Washington is broken? <\/p>\n
Pittsburgh, for the record, is doing the worst with enough money to pay just 39 percent of its pension tab. <\/p>\n
But when it comes to retiree health care costs, it's another story. San Francisco has saved less than 1 percent of its $4.4 billion tab - and each household would have to pay $13,487 to make up the difference. <\/p>\n
That's actually better than 15 cities - including Boston, Chicago, Sacramento and Seattle - which have saved nothing. Cincinnati is doing the best, having saved 85 percent of what it will owe. <\/p>\n
Mayor Ed Lee has said he'll tackle the retiree health care issue, and Supervisor Mark Farrell has called for a hearing on the matter which he said should take place in the next few weeks. He hopes to craft a ballot measure on the issue to take to voters in November. <\/p>\n
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See more here: <\/p>\n
S.F. avoids retirees' health care issue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For politicians who get awfully riled up about exposed genitalia in the Castro or what to call our local airport, the good folks at City Hall sure do have a knack for looking the other way when it comes to matters of huge financial import. Take the city's $4.4 billion unfunded liability to pay for health care for its employees and retirees over the next 30 years Continue reading