The increase in Austin's pension debt over the last decade is due in part to the fact that as the population grew, demand for public services increased and the city added more than 1,000 public employees between 2010 and 2015. As the cost of providing benefits rose, the city failed to keep up with contributions to the system—skipping nearly 170millioninpaymentstotheEmployees′RetirementPlan,whichisthecity′slargestretirementplan,overeightyears.Atthesametime,itsufferedaseriesofinvestmentshortfallssystemwide,whichcompoundedtheeffectofthemissedcontributionsandledtoawideninggapbetweenassetsandliabilities.Despitethefactthatthecityispayingmoreandmoreintotheplanseachyear,unfundedliabilitiesarecontinuingtorise.Infact,Austinspendsmorethanhalfofitspensionpaymentsondebt—ratherthanbenefitsforpublicworkers.Yeteventhesepaymentsmightnotbesufficienttopayofftheunfundedliabilities,andifthecityearnslessthanexpectedonitsinvestments,debtwillrapidlyrise.Thebriefexplainsthatthecitymusttakeimmediatestepstopaydowntheunfundedliabilitiesinordertoimprovethestabilityofitspensionplans.LocalleadersinAustinshouldtakenoteofthepensioncrisisthatisunfoldinginDallas.Twoyearsago,Dallas′pensionsystemwasinasimilarpositiontotheonethatAustiniscurrentlyin.However,Dallas′pensiondebtdoubledto4 billion and its funded ratio plummeted to 56 percent after the plan administrators made a series of reckless decisions that have pushed the city's largest plan, the police and fire fund, to the brink of bankruptcy.The situation in Dallas should provide a cautionary example of how quickly debt can spiral out of control. In the brief, McGee and Diaz Aguirre call on Austin's leaders to make the changes necessary to ensure that the city is able to uphold its retirement promises to public workers. The authors present a number of recommendations that would help stabilize the system and address the plan's underlying structural flaws, including:Making adequate funding non-negotiable and committing to pay down current unfunded liabilities in 30 years or less.Establishing prudent and realistic funding and investment policies.Establishing local control of the pension fund in order to improve oversight and accountability.Consider enrolling new workers in plans that are simpler and easier to manage, like Defined Contribution or Cash Balance plans
In the brief, LJAF Vice President Josh McGee and LJAF Sustainable Public Finance Analyst Paulina S. Diaz Aguirre explain that unless local leaders take immediate steps to pay down the pension debt and address the plans' underlying systemic flaws, the challenges will continue to escalate."Dallas is at a tipping point," McGee said. "Without immediate reforms, the city's pension problems will become too big to fix. Workers deserve a fair and secure retirement. Local leaders must work with public servants and taxpayers to develop a sustainable solution. This is true not only in Dallas, where the problems are particularly acute, but in cities across the state. Officials must take action now to ensure that their communities remain vibrant and financially stable."The most immediate pension problem facing the city of Dallas involves its Police and Fire Pension System. The fund's Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP), a savings account provided to members when they reach retirement eligibility, is nearly bankrupt. In the past six months alone, retirees have withdrawn at least 300millioninsavings.Ifthis"runonthebank"continues,thepoliceandfirefundmayrunoutofcashtopayretirees′benefits.TheissueswiththeDallaspensionsystemstemfromadecadeofinsufficientfundingforboththepoliceandfirefundaswellastheplanforothermunicipalemployees.Withthepoliceandfirefund,theproblemshavebeencompoundedbytwokeyfactors.First,abrokengovernancestructureallowedmemberstoincreasetheirownbenefitswithoutestablishingaplantopayforthoseincreases.Second,aseriesofrecklessinvestmentdecisionsmadebytheplan′spriorleadershipwentunnoticed.Formerplanadministratorsinvestedmorethanhalfofthefund′sassetsinprivateequityandrealestate,includinghigh−riskpropertiessuchasluxuryhomesinHawaiiandaresortandvineyardinNapa,California.Thecitymadelessthanexpectedontheseinvestments,whichledtoanearly1 billion investment shortfall, hundreds of millions of dollars in asset devaluations, and a reported Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) review.In addition, the police and fire fund is controlled by the state legislature, which means that local leaders do not have the authority they need to make the changes that are urgently required.In the brief, McGee and Diaz Aguirre explain that plan administrators, city officials, and state legislators must immediately come together to enact comprehensive reforms. The co-authors present a number of recommendations that would help protect workers' retirement security and improve the stability of the pension system.These include:Obtaining local control of the police and fire fundStabilizing DROPDeveloping a fair and sustainable plan to pay down the pension deb
The Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) released "A Pivotal Moment: Assessing Houston's Plan for Pension Reform," a report that provides an in-depth analysis of the City of Houston's pension reform proposal currently pending in the Texas Legislature. The report finds that the proposal includes important changes that would help protect workers and taxpayers. The reform plan was developed following discussions between Mayor Sylvester Turner and the Houston Police Officers' Pension System, the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System, and the Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund.LJAF Vice President Josh McGee and LJAF Sustainable Public Finance Analyst Paulina S. Diaz Aguirre co-authored the report after analyzing the city's proposal and conducting independent pension modeling. They say that it is incumbent on local leaders and state legislators to work together. "There are just a few weeks left in the 2017 session—and without the ability to make changes to the pension systems on its own—the city is running out of time," the report states. "Without changes, the debt could spiral into a full-scale financial crisis. The city cannot allow that to happen. Its financial future hangs in the balance and will be decided in large part in the next month."Houston currently owes 8.2billioninpensiondebt—morethananyothercityinTexas.Itdoesnothaveenoughmoneytopayfornearlyhalfoftheretirementbenefitsworkershavealreadyearned.Thisunfundedliabilitythreatensworkers′retirementsecurityandhasadirectimpactoncityfinances.Duringthepast10years,thecityhascutpublicsafetypositionsevenasspendingonpublicsafetyhasgrownbyhundredsofmillionsofdollarsduetoa55percentincreaseinpensioncosts.Theproposalseekstoaddresscriticalflawsinthecity′sfundingpractices.Undertheproposal,thecitywouldloweritsassumedrateofreturnoninvestmentsforallplansfrom8percentormoreto7percent;reducebenefitsforpublicworkers;andimplementafinancialcorridorprovisionthatwouldcapthecity′scontributionstothepensionplans.Thefinancialcorridorprovisionisakeyelementoftheproposal.Theprovisionwouldsetaminimumandmaximumcitycontributionrateforeachplan.Ifthecityweretohitorsurpassthemaximum,workerswouldberequiredtomakeadditionalbenefitconcessionstobringcostsbackunderthecap.LJAF′sanalysisshowsthatthismechanismwouldprovidesubstantialnewprotectionsfortaxpayersbutwouldalsosignificantlyincreaseworkers′exposuretorisk.Thereportstatesthattheproposal′slong−termimpactonworkerswoulddependondemographictrendsandtheplans′investmentperformance,twofactorsthatwouldinfluencehowoftenthecitywouldhitthecap.Forexample,LJAF′smodelingshowsthatthereisatwoinfive(40percent)chancethatthecity′scontributionratewouldhitthemaximumforthepolicefundatleastonceby2027.Ifthepoliceplanweretoearnlessthan7percentonitsinvestmentsintheshortorlongterm,contributionrateswouldhitthecapevensooner.Ifinvestmentreturnsmatchthecity′sassumptions,thereisroughlyaoneinthree(33percent)chancethatcontributionratesformembersofthepoliceplanwouldincreasebyfivepercentagepointsormoreinthenextdecade.Giventhatmembersofthepoliceplan—aswellasmembersoftheotherplans—havealreadyagreedtobillionsofdollarsinconcessions,McGeeandDiazAguirreexplainthatthecityhasanobligationtoupholditsendofthebargain.Theystatethatthecityshouldmakepaymentsontimeandinfullandshouldtakesteps—suchaslimitinginvestmentsinriskyassetsincludingrealestate,privateequity,andhedgefunds—toprotectworkers.Inaddition,iftheproposalisimplemented,thereportstatesthatthecityshouldalsomakegoodonitspromisetoprovidealump−sumpaymenttothetwoplanswiththelargestdeficits—thepoliceandmunicipalemployeesplans.Thecityhasproposedissuing1 billion in pension obligation bonds to cover the payments. To benefit financially, Houston would need to earn more in the market than it costs to borrow the money. Given the current market conditions, the spread between expected bond interest rates and expected returns is relatively small. Despite the fact that the bonds pose some risk, the report argues that they are a good-faith measure that reflects the city's commitment to upholding funding promises.The report concludes that, "In the short term, the proposal would place the pension plans—and the city—on firmer financial footing. The long-term impact would depend on how the changes are implemented." It also states that Houston should make further changes to establish a comprehensive, permanent solution to its pension problems. This would include creating retirement systems for new workers that are simpler and easier to manage such as a Defined Contribution plan or a Cash Balance plan
Optical measurements of trace species in the atmosphere require precise, accurate spectroscopic data for the molecules under study. This laboratory exits to provide high quality spectroscopic data for the interpretation of data from existing satellite, balloon, ground, and aircraft instruments, as well as to provide sufficient data to assess the feasibility of new instruments
The numerical values in the sixth and seventh columns of table 1 of the paper
Molec. Phys., 1999, 96, 1185-1188 are not correct. Consequently, some of the
comments made in the paper are wrong. The corrected version of table 1 is
reprinted here and the results are briefly discussed.Comment: 2 pages; Erratum to Molec. Phys., 1999, 96, 1185-1188; to be
published in Molec. Phy
The major research objective is the measurement of high precision vertical profiles of ozone between 20-40 kilometers. The precision is such that the instrument should be capable of detecting a small trend (on the order of less that 1 percent per year) over a 5-10 year period. Temperature was measured between 30 and 365 km. The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) mobile lidar was installed at Table Mountain and a comparison between it and the permanent Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) lidar was made over the course of about 3 weeks. The lidars agreed very well between 20 and 40 km, and under certain conditions up to 45-47 km. There were several anomalies that both lidars followed very well. Agreement with Rocket Ozonesonde (ROCOZ) and electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) sondes was also very good