The message local media were supposed to take away from the unveiling of the Mayor’s new budget yesterday was increased public safety spending without a property tax rate increase.
Instead, as Matt Stiles reports for the Chronicle, concerns over the city’s attempt to back away from a commitment to fund the pension at a negotiated level detracted from the intended message:
After proposing a $3.8 billion city budget Wednesday, Mayor Bill White’s administration today begins wrestling with one of its more contentious details: funding city employees’ retirement program.
The mayor’s chief administrative officer, Anthony Hall, and the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System’s executive director, David Long, are to begin negotiating the size of the city’s contribution to the retirement fund in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Long says the mayor’s proposed contribution of $75 million falls short of an agreement both sides reached in 2004. He also questions why the mayor, who must get approval of the pension fund’s management on the contribution amount, placed a figure in the budget before the parties began formal discussions.
White called any assertion that he’s underfunding the pension “ridiculous.” He said his administration has a long-term plan to give employees more retirement options while securing the system for the future. He said the city’s pension expert has been working on the issue for months.
The city under this mayor agreed to a certain amount. Now the mayor’s budget has proposed less than that amount. How is it ridiculous to use the term “underfunding?” It seems accurate enough.
Anyway, the mayor may not be able to change the clear meaning of words, but he can always resort to the old tactic of demonizing one’s perceived political opponents:
The tension over the pension issue was obvious during White’s budget presentation to the council Wednesday. The pension system’s unfunded liability grew after 2001, when benefits were enhanced under former Mayor Lee Brown, markets slumped and financing assumptions proved wrong.
White likened the situation to the collapse of Enron and criticized Long’s stewardship. He has headed the pension system since 1993.
Council members weighed in, too. Councilwoman Carol Alvarado labeled Long a “fat cat,” and others challenged him to speak before the council to answer concerns about his compensation.
Long, who has attended recent council pension meetings but has not been asked to speak, sought to stay above the fray. “I have never personally attacked him. I have never personally attacked a City Council member,” he said. “Yet, I have been personally attacked.”
KTRK-13’s Miya Shay posted about the personal nature of the attacks as well:
Basically, Mayor White accused Long of using scare tactics, and David_l_long [sic] bending the truths to decribe [sic] an employee pension system. The Mayor also talked about how basically Long makes more money than just about every city employee… among other jabs. Council Member Carol Alvarado ventured as far as to say that she doens’t [sic] understand why Long even has a job.
One has learned not to expect much in the way of decorum from the crude councilwoman, but Mayor White ought to comport himself better than that if he truly fashions himself a future statewide leader of Texas.
There’s hard work to be done on the pension mess Mayor White inherited to be sure, but the namecalling and petty personal attacks don’t need to be a part of it. They don’t really solve any problems.
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