Council approves pension contribution for resort staff

Ocean City government will be contributing slightly less to its employees’ pensions in fiscal year 2017, despite some reversals in its investments.

Finance Administrator Martha Bennett told the City Council this week that Ocean City did see some investment reductions this year, but the slight dip in percentages of both the public safety and general employees’ pension funds’ current values is no cause for alarm.

“The funding for general employees’ plan dropped from 88.5 percent to 87.8 percent and for the public safety employees plan, it went from 93 percent to 92.3 percent. So it was a very modest change,” she said.

Ocean City determines contributions to its pension plans each year through an actuarial study, which examines the resort’s employee base and estimates what the cost will be to support that number of people after they retire. Differences between what the city currently has in its trust funds and its estimated future liability are paid off via contributions over several years.

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