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City endorses limits on reducing
pensions FORT WORTH
-City
officials said Tuesday that they would support a proposed Texas
constitutional amendment that would limit their ability to reduce pension
benefits but said they remain concerned about the legislation's potential
effects. "This
has raised the City Council's awareness of the challenges in funding a
pension program, and we need to be very careful as we go forward,"
Mayor Kenneth Barr said. "Our pension program is extremely important to
our employees and must be dealt with very carefully." In
Fort Worth and elsewhere, council members fear that the change -- if
approved by the Legislature and voters -- could limit their options in
dealing with tight budgets and ultimately weaken their cities' financial
standing. But
employee representatives have said that if the legislation isn't passed,
cities could try to shirk promises they made to protect workers' pensions as
governments struggle for ways to deal with funding shortfalls. The
city has asked the bill's author, Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, to agree to
two amendments. One would exempt the city if local voters say they do not
support it; the other stipulates that the municipality and its employees
must take joint responsibility for funding the plan if there is a shortfall. King,
a lawyer and a former Fort Worth police officer, has indicated that he is
willing to support the proposed changes, said Joe Paniagua, an assistant
city manager who oversees Fort Worth's legislative issues. The
proposed amendment, which could be discussed on the House floor in coming
days, would primarily affect large Texas cities that fund their own pension
plans, such as Fort Worth, Dallas, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Austin,
Houston and El Paso. The
majority of the cities in Texas -- including Arlington, Euless, Hurst and
Southlake -- are part of the Texas Municipal Retirement System, a statewide
program that is exempt from the proposal. During
Tuesday's council meeting, attorneys for the city and its retirement board
said they believe the amendment will not have an overwhelming effect on the
city because it protects only the pension benefits that employees have
already accrued. The
city would still have the right to alter its contribution or change the
pension benefits it offers any new employees, said Gary Short, a lawyer who
advises the city's retirement board. "All this amendment is doing is saying that you can't take someone's pension away," Short said. "It's protecting what was promised to them. It's a notion of common decency and fairness." Copyright ©
2002 Global Action on Aging
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