Fort Wayne pension costs
Posted by Mike Sylvester - 10/30/08 @ 9:01 am - Filed Under Local Politics
Due to some discussion on this blog with a commentor I talked to Fort Wayne City Controller Pat Roller about the outstanding liability for the old police and fire pension plans.
Last year the city had an outstanding liability on these pensions of almost one quarter of a billion dollars. The Indiana Legislature changed the rules and took over this outstanding liability this year. This was one of the many changes that occurred with the changes in property taxes.
Per Pat Roller this is not going to benefit the City financially because at the same time the State lowered the amount that could be appropriated by the City to make pension payments by about 8 million dollars per year. The State basically lowered the amount that the City could pay via property taxes by this 8 million dollar figure.
Per Pat Roller this has a net effect of close to zero. She feels that the City most likely will have a small pension liability for these older pension plans (Maybe one million dollars) due to the death benefit and the administration costs.
So while the State of Indiana did take esponsibility for paying the bulk of these old pension plans; at the same time they lowered the amount the City could levy via property taxes by eight million per year.
The net result is close to zero.
Mike Sylvester
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2 Responses to “Fort Wayne pension costs”
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Well, Mike, the net effect to the taxpayer is not zero. I don’t know about you, but I and my fellow Hoosier consumers are paying extra sales tax every time we buy something in Indiana (and folks should be paying extra use tax for those items purchased out of state and for which sales tax has not been collected).
That extra sales tax is going to pay for the property tax obligations and relief assumed by the State of Indiana.
Mitch,
I agree with you.
The net effect to the City of Fort Wayne is zero…
Mike