Mayor Mike Rawlings won't support bill to save Dallas Police and Fire Pension System
Mayor Mike Rawlings said Sunday that he won't support legislation meant to save the failing Dallas Police and Fire Pension System.
Rawlings plans to testify about his opposition to the long-in-the-works bill on Monday in Austin during a House Pensions committee hearing. The mayor told committee Chairman Dan Flynn, R-Van, on Sunday that a key provision — which binds the city to minimum payments into the pension system — is unpalatable.
"This is a poison pill that, as inserted, would damage the city of Dallas and its services for decades to come," Rawlings said in an interview.
Rawlings' stance frustrated Flynn and escalates what had been a tense, high-stakes political standoff between Dallas police and firefighters, retirees, the pension system and City Hall. A combination of unsustainable benefits and overvalued and underperforming investments have left the first responders' pension system on track to become insolvent within 10 years if the Legislature doesn't change the laws that govern the retirement fund.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas-city-hall/2017/04/02/mayor-mike-rawlings-supportbill-save-dallas-police-fire-pension-system
