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Breaking News - Unfunded Liabilities in Marin County Tops $1 Billion!
Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans enlisted the invaluable research resources and expertise of Robert Fellner, Transparent California, to create a report reflecting the combined debt of Marin County and its 11 towns and cities. The detailed, easy to comprehend report, below, should be sent to every taxpayer in Marin County, so please forward this to your circle of contacts.
It is important for citizens of Marin County to recognize and understand the full impact of this over $1 billion debt on Marin’s current taxpayers and future generation’s of taxpayers. We see the result of this staggering liability in the form of increased sales and parcel taxes, failing infrastructure, loss of core services, and suffering schools.
As stated in a recent Marin Independent Journal editorial covering the unrealistic assumption rates of both MCERA (7.25%) and CalPERS (7.5%): “While issues regarding anticipated investment returns and long-term debt obligation can be complex, the cost to taxpayers in taxes, fees and strained municipal finances is not.”
Unfunded Pension Liabilities in Marin Top $1 Billion
The combined debt of Marin County’s municipal governments is just over $1 billion, according to the most recent financial and actuarial reports provided by each Marin city and the County of Marin.
While clearly a tremendous burden, that number would have likely been even higher, were it not for the 2012/2013 Marin County Civil Grand Jury report, Marin’s Retirement Health Care Benefits: The Money isn’t There, that thrust this issue into the public spotlight.
In compiling 2014 and 2015 figures to provide an updated assessment on the fiscal health of Marin governments, it was clear that several Marin governments had begun taking their retirement health care liabilities, or “OPEB” as they are often called, more seriously.
This analysis only focuses on the city and county levels of government, with the one exception of the Novato Fire District, which is also included. As such, the per capita unfunded liability numbers are much lower than they would be, if the Marin school districts, special districts and other state governments were also included.
The below table provides a snapshot of where each Marin government stands as of their most recent financial report for the year ending June 30, 2015. The unfunded actuarial liabilities (UAL) reflects data from the most recent actuarial valuation, which was June 30, 2014 for the Marin cities enrolled in CalPERS and 2015 for the MCERA agencies. As the Novato Fire District primarily serves the city of Novato, despite being an independent agency, their figures were added to the City of Novato’s numbers.
Unfunded Pension and OPEB liabilities of Marin County governments
| Mill Valley | $21,571,747 |
| Sausalito | $17,240,592 |
| San Rafael | $140,800,000 |
| Marin County | $243,600,000 |
| Corte Madera | $12,648,198 |
| Larkspur | $8,958,418 |
| Novato plus NFD | $45,516,118 |
| Belvedere | $2,440,678 |
| Ross | $3,009,265 |
| San Anselmo | $9,359,478 |
| Fairfax | $6,223,179 |
| Tiburon | $4,584,236 |