In August, when the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System filed a lawsuit against City Hall, we winced in concern.
The difference boiled down to which entity, the city or the pension board, had the authority to send a plan to the Texas Legislature to get the badly underfunded system back on track.
Well, the pension system won that fight in district court in Travis County. The plan it has crafted would offer substantially more funding to the pension system, with cost-of-living increases and a reduction in employee contributions in later years.
The city could drag this through an appeal, but as things stand, the pension system’s plan would become the required funding formula.
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Most readers know the pension system is underfunded by more than $3 billion. The difference here boils down to how much additional money the city will contribute per year to get us back on track. Under the pension system’s plan, it would be millions more per year.
But this is a wholly negotiable matter. Two sides have different figures in mind. The sides need to hash out those differences in a way that ensures the city is aligned with a 2017 state law that was passed for the express purpose of getting this pension funded.
There are serious people on both sides. What we need now is a leader at City Hall who has the standing to get this done. Normally, that would be the mayor, but our mayor hasn’t been doing the hard work at City Hall for a long time and we don’t expect him to start now. It could be the city manager, but that job is in the hands of an interim manager now.
Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins has been doing the heavy lifting for the city, but whether he can lead the city’s side in negotiations is unclear.
All we know is that there is an opportunity for a solution that gets this thing out of court and a solid plan to the Legislature that, yes, includes sacrifices but that also stops the drumbeat about this important public benefit.
Someone needs to get on the phone, book a conference room, order some takeout and work the spreadsheets. There is time, but the clock is ticking.
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