The City Of Houston 's Pension Crisis

In general, countries experiencing high fertility and rapid population growth, have a “young” population structure and the important policy considerations are if there are enough schools and, sufficient jobs and housing to accommodate this population. Countries with “old” population structures face the problems of structuring and developing retirement and health systems to serve this older population and also they have a considerable reduction the number of the working force. The decline of the work force is one of the most dramatic economic tendencies of the past four decades in the United States. The individual’s decision of whether to stay in the workforce or to retire is based on the collaboration of a number of factors including the following: eligibility for Social Security benefits, availability of and benefits under an employer-financed pension plan, work

9. How did the pension plan changes affect Harnischfeger’s financial statements in 1984? Are these changes likely to affect future profits?

In the department of Health and Welfare, the new government had developed a national contributory pension plan that was based on the Liberal campaign promises. (English, 284-285)

In the essay, “The Social Security Problem,” published in Sticks and Stones and Other Student Essays, Max Moore addresses the complex issue of Social Security running out of funds. He also addresses the possible actions that can be taken in order to provide a solution to this problem. Moore targets different audiences that are either directly affected or in control of this depletion of funds. He uses credible evidence to support his claims while also approaching the subject in a balanced and unbiased manner. Moore wants Social Security to both raise the retirement age and raise taxes.

John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” America has always had its challenges when facing economic issues; however, the government has the tendency to avoid the reality of what approaches in the future. There have been several attempts of reform for these types of economic problems. Nevertheless, most have not been successful, and time is running out. One of those issues is the graying of America. What is the graying of America? It is the demographic trend consisting of all the baby boomers that are aging and getting closer to retirement. Even though it does not seem like an area of concern, there are many

The mayor is weak, the city council is composed of numerous individuals, and the city manager is supposed to stay out of politics." Thus, council manager cities have a tendency to respond more to tip top and white collar class concerns than to those of the regular workers and ethnic minorities. The business first class and the white collar class have more organizations and leaders who have entry to city government and know how to function the system Just a minority of council-manager cities have mayors who routinely give strong political and strategy leadership. One of these exceptions is San Antonio, where mayors for the most part are strong leaders The council-manager form seems to function admirably in cities where most individuals are of the same ethnic gathering and social class and share regular goals. Obviously, couple of focal cities fit this description, yet numerous suburbs

Garcia claims this current system is unsustainable, and requires City Hall, legislators, employees, and taxpayers to form a partnership. “Two things appeal to the voters: I know how to protect the community and I know how to save people money.”

The City of Houston pension systems are at a crossroads. The recession has brought pension funding practices into the bureaucratic limelight due to the proliferating scrutiny and tightening of the local finances. Pension reform has been spurred by ballooning cost projections and an estimate $2.7 trillion nationwide funding gap (Johnson, Chingos & Whitehurst, 2013). Reforming the insufficient pension system has suggested for most citizens from taxpayers who want to reduce the expense down and yet still receive a great quality of firefighters, police officer, and public services who want to preserve their retirement security. The recent Detroit bankruptcy ruling has left a sobering precedent that pension promises are not sacrosanct, but could possibly renege on if a local government falls too far behind its funding obligations (Bomey 2013). The wide ranges of public sector pensions are considering benefit plans. In these kind of plan, when an employee reaches a specified age or years of service, he or she in entitled to a set amount of benefits each year from retirement until decease. The benefit amount of a retiree

For an extended period, state and local policymakers and labor unions ignored as the growing public pension obligations became an increasingly fiscal burden. The pension problem was enormous and associated with irresponsible financial practices connected to defined benefit pension plans (Thompson, 1980). Following this, the state of California and its local government have a problem of unfunded public pension liabilities that was estimated to be around $583 billion. Because of this, as Lu and Otto (2003) claim, several cities in the state have had a difficult duty of balancing budgets in a balanced way to the public employees and taxpayers, while continuing to provide public services to the

Soft infrastructure is another important aspect of city’s construction while Detroit’s bankruptcy partly resulted in healthcare. It is surprising that the amount of healthcare premiums payment was much larger than the pension. There was $6.4 billion of the liabilities in other post-employment benefits(OPEB). However, Detroit is not the only one. The unfunded healthcare obligations of other cities are also larger than the unfunded pension obligations while other cities choose to slow down the growth of retiree unfunded healthcare debt (Pozen, 2013).

Allen, S. G., Clark, R. L., & Ghent, L. S. (2004). Phasing into retirement. The Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 58(1), 112-127. Gelfand, D.E., & Bechill, W. (1991, Summer-Fall). The evolution of the older Americans act: a 25-year review of the legislative changes. Generations, 15(3), 19-22. Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2010). Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment (8th ed.). Mason , Ohio: Brooks Cole/Cengage.

Political climate change, Political philosophy say that it would not increase or decrease. Political philosophy think that when you are not sure, select the option that minimizes profits and assets. This would have been more conservative if only underfunded plans were book to liabilities and overfunded plans were just reported in documents but no asset booked. Given the extensive assumptions, the certainty of future benefits is not very high. Overfunded plans can turn too underfunded with one deep plunge of the stock market, as happened in fall 2008. According to www.nrln.org an good example, General Motors used pension assets to pay for nearly $3 billion in lump sum severance payouts during 2008 and ended up with such a dangerous degree of under-funding that in early 2009 the Treasury Department restricted the practice as a condition of the federal bailout loan package. In 2012 it terminated its plan for management and salaried retirees entirely. (www.nrln.org)

Each day that goes by there is a politician or journalist arguing about social security, the plans for saving it, and the repercussions of said plans. These topics are constantly flowing through newspapers, internet sites, online journals, and economic journals as well as many other forms of media. The major topic of discussion is the plan put forth by the current administration to reform social security, or more specifically, privatize it. There is no correct argument or correct opinion on how the situation with social security should be handled. Unfortunately, the government has the power in their hands to do with it as they see fit. Presented in

I read a interesting social topic. The title interest was me "A Retirement Crisis? There Are Actually Three, Says Vanguard Founder Jack Bogle." The article is about Retirement Crisis. Jack Bogle analyze the retire problem. He said there are three reason U.S. would not face Retirement Crisis. Firstly, the financial squeeze on Social Security, which system can’t meet obligations to future retirees in full. Second of all, a similar underfunding among pension plans at corporations and at state and local governments. It assuming unrealistically high investment returns. The last, contribution savings plans that are increasingly the primary workplace retirement plans for Americans, such as which workers are given bad advice by brokers and other financial

With the workforce in America decreasing due to hard economic times, there is no guarantee the money put into the reserve will sufficiently support a generation when it is time for retirement. Depending on Social Security to support a person financially when ready to retire, will leave that individual in even more of a struggle than the beneficiaries trying to survive in these earlier years of the 21 century. Social Security benefits represent about 41% of the income of the elderly; if there is not enough to support even half of the elderly’s financial needs now, there is no reason a younger person should depend on it alone for retirement (Dewitt, 2010) in the future.