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Thursday, August 02, 2018

Philadelphia Plunders Its Property-Owners For Cash

Like a lot of major cities in the United States, Philadelphia is in pretty rough financial condition.

One of the city’s biggest problems is its woefully underfunded public pension, which has a multi-billion dollar funding gap.

In 2001, Philadelphia’s pension fund was still in decent shape with a funding level of 77%, meaning that it had sufficient assets to meet 77% of its long-term obligations.

By 2017 the funding level had dropped to less than 50%.

Part of this is just blatant mismanagement; while most of the market soared in 2016, for example, Philadelphia’s pension fund lost about $150 million on its investments, roughly 3.17% of its capital.

It’s interesting that, along the way, the city has actually tried to fix the problem. Between 2001 and 2017, the amount of money that the city contributed to the pension fund actually increased by 230%.

Yet despite increasing contributions to the fund, the fund’s solvency level keeps shrinking.

Mayor Jim Kenny summed up the grim situation in his budget address last year:

The City’s annual pension contribution has grown by over 230 percent since fiscal year 2001. . . These increasing pension costs have caused us to cut important public services while the pension fund’s health has grown weaker. In fact, our pension fund has actually dropped from 77 percent funded to less than 50 percent funded during the same time our contributions were so rapidly increasing.

So, desperate for revenue, the local government has been relying on an old tactic to get their hands on every spare penny they can.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And now can you see you are a slave to taxes??? And that they will spend all of it as wastefully as possible do they can keep on raining taxes saying well don't you want those services, well we have to pay for them someone, so we will just steal your money...

Anonymous said...

If you try to walk, I'll tax the street;
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat...
The Taxman by the Beatles

Anonymous said...

Maybe the pension is way under funded because the idiot mayor is too busy making Philly a sanctuary city for illegal aliens and paying for their healthcare and giving them welfare! Democrats are dangerous to freedom and retirement plans.

Anonymous said...

Who's being paid big bucks to manage the investment fund? Maybe they could do better, lots better.

Anonymous said...


How's that soda tax working out Philly geniuses?

Anonymous said...

Question - Did Philly build a barrier fence to prohibit drunks crossing in the middle of intersections...at the tune of $7M?

No?

Hey Rickie - YOU WIN, Mr. Fiscally Responsible Mayor!!!!!

SMH!