(Chicago Tribune) — Chicago’s public pension funds are teetering on the brink of insolvency in large part because city officials and union leaders repeatedly exploited the system, draining away billions of dollars in the last decade to serve short-term political needs, a Tribune investigation has found. Time and again, the funds have been used as […]
(Chicago Tribune) — Much has been made of retiring Mayor Richard Daley‘s plan to draw down reserve funds to balance next year’s city budget and how it could burden his successor.But the chairman of the Finance Committee, Ald. Ed Burke, on Monday talked about a far larger problem. One of four pension funds for city workers […]
(WSJ) — Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to place pension reform at the top of the city’s Albany legislative agenda, promising an aggressive push following years of failing to make headway, a top deputy said on Wednesday. “We’ve seen how General Motors became a pension fund that also made cars,” Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said. “Unless […]
(Bloomberg)-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said city pension funds have set unrealistically high assumed rates of return on investments, at 8%, which may require spending more than has been budgeted for retirement benefits. “It’s much too high an assumption for us; I think it should be lowered,” Mr. Bloomberg said Monday at a news briefing. […]
(WSJ) — Death didn’t stop some New York City retirees from collecting their pensions, according to the comptroller’s office. City Comptroller John Liu referred 14 cases of potential pension fraud—totaling nearly half a million dollars—to the city’s Department of Investigation for possible criminal prosecution. Officials are also going to examine another 171 cases where fraud […]
(Bloomberg) — New York’s $124.8 billion pension fund, the nation’s third-largest, reduced the assumed rate of return on its investments to 7.5% from 8% as it recovers from market losses, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. Mr. DiNapoli, the sole trustee of the pension fund, said state and local government employers’ payments to the fund will increase […]
(Chicago Tribune) — Shortly before Tim Baldermann retired as Chicago Ridge’s police chief, the town boosted his salary by more than $70,000, handing the 44-year-old as big a paycheck in retirement as he earned full time on the police force. The deputy police chief, who sat on the pension board, received a similar deal. As […]
(NYT) — Many New York state and local government workers pad their pensions by drastically increasing their overtime in their last years of employment, according to a report released Wednesday by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo. “It is widespread, it is chronic and is very, very expensive,” Mr. Cuomo said at a press conference in Manhattan at […]
(Pensions & Investments) — New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, will continue its effort to sue BP despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that has created a jurisdictional hurdle, confirmed Robert Whalen, a spokesman for New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, the sole trustee of the $132.6 billion fund. “Last week’s ruling by the […]
(Atlanta Journal Constitution) — Atlanta City Council has agreed to reduce pension benefits for new city employees, giving Mayor Kasim Reed an important building block for his $558 million budget plan. Council members voted overwhelmingly late Monday to impose a lower multiplier on pensions for new police officers, firefighters and general-fund employees, and to lengthen the […]
(Medill Reports) — Dale Rosenthal, a former strategist for Long Term Capital Management, the hedge fund known for its epic collapse in 1998, and a proprietary trader for Morgan Stanley, has seen his share of financial complexities. But when shown a seven-page list of derivatives positions held by the Illinois Teachers Retirement System as of […]