Comments on: New Labor Contracts Key to County Budget

By: snotGurggle

snotGurggle — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 23:00:31 +0000

I agree with comment 1 but perhaps “cigarette money” is not such a good metaphor these days, do you know what smokes cost these days Herb? I smoke two packs of Camels a day, my wife one of Virginia Slims, the children and their friends filtch constantly (we pretend not to notice). In this house at least cigarette money is not cigarette money.

By: observatory

observatory — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:31:52 +0000

But our county’s sainted CEO Verna, bless her public service minded soul, she won’t be eligible to collect just voted unfunded pension funds and gold plated lifetime health care benefits that regular taxpayers pay for but can never receive … am I right?

By: Roger Kuhlman

Roger Kuhlman — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:13:50 +0000

The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners have unwisely and financially irreponsibly given unionized government workers premium way-out-of-line pension and healthcare benefits and they now have a huge unfunded liability problem for these gold-plated programs which they hope to fix by floating $250 million bond issue. That means millages and taxes will have to rise substantially. This County Board has done a shameful job of managing Washtenaw County government. They manage for politically friendly special interests and against the interests of taxpayers and the general public.

By: Observatory

Observatory — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 02:08:04 +0000

Commissioner Ronnie Peterson, legislative/political director for the Michigan AFSCME area office: It is a ‘tremendous sacrifice’ when the foxes in the henhouse don’t eat every last chicken.

By: Dave Askins

Dave Askins — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:37:07 +0000

The passage to which Herb is alluding is this one:

Those legacy costs were a factor alluded to during the March 20 discussion, linking to another major decision that is expected to come before the board: bonding to cover the county’s unfunded liabilities for employee pensions and retiree healthcare. The issue hasn’t been discussed directly at any of the board’s regular meetings, but commissioners have been informed that a proposal likely will be brought forward by administration.

Based on actuarial valuations at the end of 2011, the county had $101.27 million in unfunded liabilities for its defined benefit pension, and $148.46 million in unfunded liabilities for its retiree healthcare. Those amounts will be higher when the 2012 actuarial valuations are completed later this year. The new accounting standards of GASB 68 require that unfunded liabilities must be included in an organization’s financial statements for fiscal years beginning after June 15, 2014.

By: Herb

Herb — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:18:25 +0000

Among the bushels of verbiage is something about a forthcoming proposal for bonding to cover unfunded pension and retiree health care, possibly to the tune of a quarter billion, which is simple English means a big millage increase for a long time.

Very probably AAPS and the City of Ann Arbor will be doing the same thing. State taxes will probably go up substantially now that Michigan is the proud new owner of Detroit. Federal tax increases appear to be inevitable, the only questions being how much and when.

The local electorate will not have much influence on State and Federal matters but can politely (or not so politely) decline millages. The county government has made pension and retiree health care promises that are way beyond its resources. The unions will not accept concessions of more than cigarette money. The obvious way out of this is not increased taxes but bankruptcy. Send a legal observer to Detroit, see how it is done, get the paper work ready, it will be needed.