

Let it Bleed: SF Pensions will bankrupt city within a decade - skmurphy
http://www.sfweekly.com/content/printVersion/2205802/
Fully 20 percent of all current employees are eligible to retire tomorrow--and 27 percent of cops and firefighters can hang it up now if they choose, according to the DHR. Since a retired worker can cost San Francisco nearly 98 percent as much as a working one, goodbye parties are just the beginning of the city's pending expenses.<p>So we're already taking away services from people who live here to pay for people who no longer work here.<p>But that's not the worst of it. There's an even bigger financial apocalypse right behind this one. By 2015, the city's pension contribution will swell to at least half a billion dollars--as a best-case scenario. Meanwhile, the city has a $4 billion unfunded health care liability looming that it hasn't saved any money for.<p>San Francisco can either bring its benefits into line, substantially raise taxes and fees to maintain the status quo, or severely cut services and employees. Or it can do all of the above.<p>San Francisco's benefits system is protected by the city charter, and is sustainable. The city, as we know it, isn't.
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skmurphy
Key excerpts:

"Fully 20 percent of all current employees are eligible to retire tomorrow--
and 27 percent of cops and firefighters can hang it up now if they choose,
according to the DHR. Since a retired worker can cost San Francisco nearly 98
percent as much as a working one, goodbye parties are just the beginning of
the city's pending expenses.

So we're already taking away services from people who live here to pay for
people who no longer work here.

But that's not the worst of it. There's an even bigger financial apocalypse
right behind this one. By 2015, the city's pension contribution will swell to
at least half a billion dollars--as a best-case scenario. Meanwhile, the city
has a $4 billion unfunded health care liability looming that it hasn't saved
any money for.

San Francisco can either bring its benefits into line, substantially raise
taxes and fees to maintain the status quo, or severely cut services and
employees. Or it can do all of the above.

San Francisco's benefits system is protected by the city charter, and is
sustainable. The city, as we know it, isn't."

~~~
hga
Or San Francisco can be forced into a Chapter 9 bankruptcy
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_9,_Title_11,_United_Sta...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_9,_Title_11,_United_States_Code))
like and for the same reason Vallejo, California was in 2008.

Bringing "benefits into line" will likely require breaking contracts, which is
one of the utilities of bankruptcy.

