He claimed that he is in his recent article posted in Citywatch.
I’m sure Council Member Zine is aware of the serious implications unfunded pension liabilities will have on the city’s finances.
If he is as focused as he claims, he did not offer any indication of it. If anything, he did a little tap dance pointing to the sanctity of existing benefits and retirement payouts.
We already know about contracts and understand the legal obligations. However, even contracts can be modified in the event of grave insolvency.
It is in everyone’s interests to avoid insolvency, but unless there are significant reforms, that’s what the city faces.
So, Mr. Zine, tell us something we do not know. Simply supplying links to LACER’s reports doesn’t tell us anything new. We also already know the rate of return assumption of 8% is unrealistically high and masks the full extent of the unfunded liability.
So, what pension framework are you considering?
Until you share that, how are we to determine if you are really focused or just throwing the words “pension reform” around as so many of your peers do because it sounds good. The growing number of taxpayers who are tired of bearing the risk of defined benefit pension plans want specifics.
We want to be part of the dialog, but so far there is only a monologue. It might actually be a soliloquy given the dearth of information supplied by the Council Member.
Pension reform is the most critical issue facing the city. Zine should engage all constituencies. He could start with the Neighborhood Councils.
Mr. Zine, we await your response.
We’ve been kicking this can down the road much too long but I’ve always said that the City council is gutless when facing the City Unions.
They need their financial support when they want to move on to their next position at the public trough.
The taxpaying public cannot or will not exact their revenge on them with any degree of certainty.
It is quickly becoming mathematically impossible to fund these inflation protected defined benefit pensions any longer. We have to stop this insanity.
The solution is for the city to declare bankruptcy and take the decision away from these ineffective politicians in my opinion.
The economy is not going to get better next year and it won’t in the foreseeable future.
Even “Uber-Keynesian” Economist Paul Krugman has finally thrown in the towel and stated that we are in for a long Depression (The dreaded “D” word) but he attributes that unhappy result to NOT spending enough money on the problem.
[…] Kerry Cavanaugh wrote an excellent editorial on pension reform in the Daily News (I’ll comment on it and my vision for pension reform later this week – I’m not going to wait for Council Member Zine to enlighten us with his thoughts). […]
[…] leadership for you. Just as Dennis Zine did not elaborate on how he is “focused” on pension reform, few officials or candidates want to take a public stand for fear of alienating unions. […]
[…] Zine did not elaborate on how he is “focused” on pension reform, [LINK] few officials or candidates want to take […]
[…] and ability to provide affordable services are rising pension costs. It was a year ago that Dennis Zine said he was focused on pension reform. Maybe he lost his glasses since then, but focused is not a term that can describe Zine’s […]