Shall the City increase retirement benefits for miscellaneous employees hired after 1976?
Proposition C is a Charter amendment which would increase retirement benefits for miscellaneous City employees hired after 1976. [Miscellaneous City employees are defined in the Charter as City employees other than police officers and firefighters. Miscellaneous employees hired after 1976 now receive lower retirement benefits than those who were hired earlier.] If this proposition should pass, miscellaneous
City employees hired after 1976, who now may get a pension of up to 70% of their salary, would get a pension of up to 75% of their final salary. The pension amount would be based on years of service and a multiplier ranging from 1% per year of service at age 50 to 2% at age 60. The employee's "final salary" would mean the average monthly salary during the one-year period when the employee earned the
highest salary. Employees in this group who became disabled would get a pension based on 1.8% of their final salary for each year of service.
Should the proposed Charter amendment be adopted, in my opinion, it would increase the cost of the government by an amount, estimated by the Retirement System Actuary, of $35 million per year for 20 years and then dropping to $17 million per year. "Even with this proposal, the City does not expect to have to make a contribution to the Retirement System for at least the next 15 years. If this measure were adopted, according to the actuary, the City's Retirement System would still have a significant surplus (estimated at over $2 billion as of 6/30/99).
- Summary of Arguments FOR Proposition C:
- Proposition C would make the City of San Francisco a more competitive employer and help attract and retain the most highly skilled personnel possible at no additional cost to the taxpayer.
These increases in benefits for the aging City employee are small but needed and deserved in light of the increased cost of living in San Francisco and the soundness of the City's Retirement System.
The passage of Proposition C would correct an omission in San Francisco City employees' retirement benefits by equalizing those benefits for the City employees hired after 1976. These benefits would go to working people who do the day-to-day tasks which make the City run.
- Summary of Arguments AGAINST Proposition C:
- When a City employee is hired, he or she negotiates a package of benefits with the City. He or she should not be entitled to renegotiate that package.
The temporary surplus in the retirement fund won't last; these new benefits would soon reduce monies that could go to more needy and important programs.
The City pensions are already generous and include cost-of-living increases.
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League of Women Voters
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League of Women Voters of California
