Houston muni pension

Prior to his work in the public pension arena, David worked for 13 years in the City of Houston Finance and Administration Department, primarily on issuing tax exempt municipal bonds.

Emelyn Culanag Staff Accountant. Ci ty of Houston officials in began setting aside funds with a special goal in mind — creating a retirement system to serve its hard-working employees. The Texas Legislature established the plan, making the system official on May 3, Fast forward to the present, the System remains true to the original vision of providing a pension to its members. But there have been a few changes along the way, as well as plenty of growth in assets and membership.

The Municipal Pension System consisted of a seven-member Board of Trustees made up of the city manager, city treasurer, two city employees who were members of the System and three taxpaying Houston voters. As the city continued to expand, officials knew they needed a solid work force to fuel the growth and so they promised new hires a pension. The offer attracted many citizens to local government work, spurring a dramatic increase in the pension system. Under the Mayor's plan, there are actually consequences to making bad estimates, and that's going to give the pension review boards as well as the City the proper incentives to make the right assumptions.

That's what we need. We need a system that incentivizes the parties to make consistent decisions, not decisions they know are probably off.

It was all smiles all night long as the numbers came in, with voters overwhelmingly backing the slate of initiatives known as "Lift Up Houston.

Lege TV. Dear Houstonians, They said it couldn't be done; but in Houston, we always get it done. To see those reports, click here We began by bringing a deal, negotiated in Houston between the City and employee groups, to the Texas Legislature. Sincerely, Sylvester Turner Mayor.

Real Numbers for a Real Solution For the first time, the pension boards are opening their books. All gains and losses will be recognized. The solution implements a more realistic rate of return of 7 percent, which is in line with national standards. Only by using real numbers do we understand the true extent of the problem, and only then are we able to fully address it. To pay back the debt, the City has issued pension obligation bonds , which voters passed in November with more than 75 percent of the vote.

Why It's Called a "National Model" Under the old plan, if investments did not meet expectations, the City had to make up the difference. Amortization Period Yrs? The Texas Pension Review Board has adopted guidelines that this period should never exceed 40 years, while the preferred range is 25 to 30 years.

The arrows indicate whether the current amortization period is higher, lower or equal to the length of time reported in the prior reporting period. The unfunded liability is the amount of projected pension benefit obligations in excess of the value of assets.

Benefit Tier Details Tier :. Eligible Members :. Vesting :. Benefit Formula :. Final Average Salary :. Automatic COLA :. Benefit Tier Options :. Forward DROP, no max. Social Security :. Note :. Tier :. Years of Credited Service x 1.