Cincinnati revamps retirement benefits - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

sucujovide.wordpress.com
billion within five years. The vote came as a councipl majority suddenly coalesced around a series of reformsa first introduced last fall bythe city’se Task Force for Retirement Security. Reforms related to health care changes were subsequently modified to providwe additional protectionfor low-income retirees. The reformds are projected to reducethe system’s unfunded liability by $137 milliohn and reduce by $22 million the amount the city woul be required to contribute annually to erase the retirement system’s long-term liability.
Most of the reform measuresd passed witheight votes, with Councilmen Cecil Thomas and Chris Monzel voting againsg the motion reducing health benefits. That motion’s passage meana former city employees who retired before September 2007 will be shiftex out ofthe city’s traditional indemnity plan and into a modifiexd PPO plan that covers 90 percent of all Council member Roxanne Qualls said a recen projection that the city faces a $40 million budget deficit next combined with a Retirement System request that the city contributwe $125 million to the plan in 2010 servee as a “wake up for members of council.
“People realized that the time for delatwas over,” she said. Councilwoman Lesliew Ghiz criticized council’s Democratid majority for voting on the reforms withouyt letting retirees knowin advance. “I feel they have a righf to be heardon this,” Ghiz said beforwe voting in favor of the reforms. “Iu just don’t think it’s a fair way to do Thomas said he votedd against the health care changes because it violates a promised the city made to itsformerf employees. Monzel said the changes didn’ty go far enough.
He’d like the city to transfed its pension liabilities to the Ohio Public Employeed Retirement System or give city employees the option of funding theirf own IndividualRetirement Accounts. “What we’re doing today is only cutting around the Monzel said. “It’s not going to solve the problem.” Councilmajn Jeff Berding submitted a motion to reconvensthe city’s retirement task force to seek additional solution s to the Retirement System’w shortfalls.
Qualls said the list of reform s should include changing the composition of the pension boarcd to include more financial Qualls and Councilman Chris Bortz both opined that the curren t board has been more concerned with preserviny benefits than protecting the financial integrituy ofthe system.