Blog Post < Previous | Next >
CSPP
Marin County cuts back on transparency
Below is a letter that appeared in today's Marin Independent Journal written by CSPP core member Dick Tait. It is extremely important because even the slightest deviation from full transparency is reason for alarm. We hope the County will correct this in future tax bills and should, in fact, send taxpayers a separate notice with fully disclosed information. You might want to encourage your supervisors to do so. Their email addresses are attached.
I would also like for you to read this article regarding Vacaville's big "surprise" when they learned that their pension funding level dropped considerably, placing its total unfunded pension liability of $359 million as the 19th worst funded out of 460 cities in California. What is equally alarming is that the City Council members seem to have been unaware of the crisis.
Equally troubling figures given in the article are the costs that Vacaville would face if it tried to exit CalPERS. With a $359 Million unfunded debt it would cost them between $501 million to $645 million to get out of CalPERS.
Link to Vacaville article: http://www.dailyrepublic.com/solano-news/fairfield...
To be precise, according to the 2015 study by the California Policy Center (linked below), Vacaville was then ranked 160 and now 19. At that time, San Rafael was ranked #1 in worst funding ratio.
I will try to find out if there are any more recent studies, but I doubt San Rafael has dropped very much, if at all, on that sad list.
Link to 2015 unfunded ratio study: http://californiapolicycenter.org/california-city-...
On a happier note, the fires seem to be more contained today and the air in Marin is considerably better. Let's hope that it will soon be over and that the people who have lost so much will be helped in restoring their lives. It is truly devastating.
www.facebook.com/citizens4pensionreform
County cuts back on transparency
The insert that came with your newest property tax bill from the county recently no longer reports the total retiree-related debts, as did inserts from previous years — since 2013-14, when Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans fought to have pension retiree benefit liabilities reflected on the tax bill.
This comes as an unwelcome surprise and a real concern.
The current insert does include the “Unfunded Actuarial Pension Liability” of $244 million, as of June 30, 2015 and the “Unfunded Actuarial Healthcare Liability” of $295 million, as of June 30, 2016.
According to the Marin County Employees Retirement Association’s actuarial valuation report from March, the unfunded pension liability is $297 million. Moreover, the reported data does not include the principal balance of the county’s pension bond — issued at $112.8 million — used to pay down the unfunded pensions.
As of June 2016, the bond amount was still almost $100 million.
While the reported unfunded pension liability and the health care liability total $539 million, the total retiree related debt, were it reported using available June 30, 2016 data, is $691 million, over $150 million more than the reported pension and health care liabilities.
We hope that next year’s tax insert will again include all the total retiree debt information available at the time the tax bills are being prepared.
Taxpayers deserve to be completely informed of this continuing liability, which has received contributions from the county’s general fund — money that could have otherwise been used for worthwhile social programs, infrastructure improvements and maintenance.
— Dick Tait, Mill Valley Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans