Rot from Dallas’ police and fire pension fund spreads to further bond ratings downgrades

[TexasTowelie]

For the third time in nine days, Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez has sent the city council a memo about a bond ratings downgrade — in this instance those affecting the city entities that funded the Omni Dallas and the Mercantile Building. Both were downgraded this week from A+ to A by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services.

The two new downgrades won’t cost the city a dime — unlike the recent general obligation bond downgrades. Those will slightly increase interest rates that Dallas must pay back on hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of capital improvement bonds the city expects to sell this month and in coming years.

Though Dallas won’t pay more in interest, the latest downgrades are yet another signal of wobbling confidence in the city’s financial state.

Although Standard and Poor’s still considers Dallas a “stable investment,” the firm views the beleaguered Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund as a heavier and heavier drag on City Hall’s credit worthiness.

Read more: http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/2015/11/rot-from-dallas-police-and-fire-pension-fund-spreads-to-further-bond-ratings-downgrades.html/

[Dustlawyer]

1. You should not have to worry about messing with the retirement you earned under,

not only actual contracts, but a social contract. You don't take money away from the elderly. My dad worked his whole career at a shipyard owned by Bethlehem Steel. They went under after robbing the pension fund rendering retirement a joke! Do you have any idea what that does to a family on both micro and macro levels? Forced back in the work force with health problems is not a good situation to find yourself in. Companies did this by the thousands when they moved manufacturing overseas!

Republicans have ruined government so they could better demonize it and make sure corporations were protected from it. The agencies only go after small and medium sized businesses within their meager budgets.

Wall Street fleeced the pension funds as part of their scams. Holder refused to go after Wall Street.

I say it's BERNIE TIME!!!

[Travis_0004]

2. The problem is cities make promises without funding them.

If they primise a pension with a PV of 500k, there should be the PV of 500k ready for me.

Instead they make promises and dont fund them and kicm the can down the road.

I would like to see the law changed that if they make a promise, they fund that promise. If a company goed under, your pension is funded instead of taking money out from current workers to pay for it.

[hobbit709]

3. Funny how the people that make the decisions on looting/underfunding the pensions

always seem to keep theirs.