Search the News Archive

Improper Sick-Leave Deal May Cost Atlantic City School District $3 Million

Excerpt: The school district may have to pay nearly $3 million to the state's pension fund for an allegedly improper attempt to spur early retirements with special financial incentives, according to documents[.]

Atlantic City Casino Union Fights Pay Cut, Benefits Proposal

In addition, [a union president] said, the casinos want union members to start contributing for the first time toward the cost of their health and pension benefits. Over the past seven years, workers' base pay has risen by only 55 cents an hour because the union has been adamant about protecting health benefits[.]

NCPERS Response to Grand Rapid Press Reporting on City Pension (PDF)

1 page. "Your April 15 article on public employee pensions ('Pension costs swell Grand Rapids city budget deficit') offers an incomplete picture of the pension situation in Grand Rapids, focuses on a single year of poor investment returns, and fails to report on the long-term success of the pension plan managers in your city."

Delray Beach, FL and Florida Atlantic University Latest to Sanction Domestic Partner Benefits

Excerpt: Delray Beach joins other public employers locally in agreeing to provide domestic partner employee benefits. As well, a new nondiscrimination policy at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) is being viewed as 'a victory' for gay and lesbian students and employees, according to Rand Hoch, founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council (HRC).

Employers Should Be Aware of Voting Leave Laws for Mid-Atlantic Employees

"Under Maryland law, employees may take up to two hours of paid leave to vote on Election Day if they do not have two consecutive off-duty hours while polls are open.... Under D.C. Law, employees may take up to two hours of paid leave to vote in person (wherever they are registered to vote, including outside the District, and regardless of whether they have sufficient off-duty time in which to vote).... Under W.V. law, employees may take up to three hours of leave to vote, which is paid unless the employee had at least three consecutive off-duty hours in which to vote but failed to do so."

Speech: Pension Rights Center at IRS/ASPPA Mid-Atlantic Benefits Conference, May 9, 2006 (PDF)

12 pages. Excerpt: Given the recent developments in the pension system and the focus on these issues nationally, I think this is a great time to take stock of where we are and ask the big questions about the state of the retirement income system in this country, both today and for the future.

Sereboff v. Mid-Atlantic Medical Services Health Plan Subrogation Case

Originally published May 18, 2006. Excerpt: The Court's decision goes a long way towards reconciling a number of conflicting decisions ... [but] the factual context of the case is likely to continue to spawn disputes over the circumstances that permit recovery.... [such as] situations where a segregated investment account does not exist or where the participant does not continue to hold the money.

Bankruptcy Judge Presses Detroit Emergency Manager Over Proposed Pension Cuts

"Kevyn Orr, Detroit's state-appointed emergency manager, testified ... that he did not mean to mislead city retirees when he said during a June 10 public meeting that pension rights were 'sacrosanct' under Michigan's constitution.... 'I was trying to say we understood these issues around pensions,' Orr said. 'What would you say to that retiree now about his rights?' asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, who is overseeing the case. 'I would say that his rights are in bankruptcy now,' Orr said."

Cities Are Eliminating the Healthcare Benefits Once Promised to Retirees

"Employers have a legal obligation to continue paying pensions, although bankruptcy can change that. But most legal experts would agree that employers can do away or dramatically change health insurance for retirees -- even if they had promised it for life.... [P]ublic employers across the country may soon begin following Detroit's lead and withdrawing coverage for retirees, instead sending them to the health-care exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act."

City of Chattanooga Wins COLA Lawsuit Brought by Retired Police Officers, Firefighters

"In 2014, the City Council voted to reduce the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for retired police officers and firefighters from a guaranteed annual 3 percent rate to an average of 1.5 percent, depending on the level of benefits a retiree was receiving. Reducing the cost-of-living adjustment level was part of a package of reforms ... to reduce the city's $150 million unfunded pension liability ... The reform also increased employees' pension contributions by nearly 40 percent, while saving the city more than $227 million over the next 24 years, the mayor's office said."

Are City Fiscal Woes Widespread? Are Pensions the Cause? (PDF)

"[T]he image that American cities are about to topple like dominoes is not accurate. About 13 percent of the cities and towns in our local sample has been cited in the press as having financial problems, which is not surprising in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. Second, fiscal mismanagement and economic issues are more important than pensions in explaining why cities are identified as being in financial trouble."

Former Top City Hall Official Pleads Guilty in Detroit Pension Fund Bribery Case

"George Stanton, the former chief of staff to ex-Detroit City Councilwoman Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, admitted in U.S. District Court that he accepted the bribes as a reward for supporting a proposed investment by businessman Roy Dixon, who is also facing charges. Stanton said he helped push Dixon's investment proposal before the Police and Fire Retirement System. Stanton faces up to 10 years in prison."

Detroit City Workers Worried About Pensions Amid Budget Cuts

"[C]hanging the city's pension plan would require a ruling by a bankruptcy judge, which may be overruled by the state constitution. 'In law, nothing is a sure thing,' [said Douglas Bernstein, a Bloomfield Hills attorney]. 'We're setting up a showdown over what takes precedence -- a bankruptcy judge or a state's constitution.'"

Philadelphia's Public Officials Have Devised New Ways to Take Advantage of the City's Already-Depleted Pension Fund

[N]ow the city has a separate class of 102 beneficiaries who don't plan to retire for another five to ten years. With the Council pressing ahead with plans to reform DROP and a mayor who says he wants to kill the program, that number is sure to grow as panic spreads among city workers. (Since Feb. 1, 2010, 1,520 employees have enrolled in DROP, at a cost of $247 million in future bonuses.)

Moody's Announces New Ratings Rules for Public Pensions; Ratings of 29 Cities to be Reviewed

"These changes reflect a view that pension obligations are 'a significant source of credit pressure for governments and warrant a more conservative view of the potential size of the obligations,' according to a press release announcing the new rules. As a result of the new approach, Moody's immediately placed on review the general obligation bonds for 29 municipalities that have large adjusted net pension liabilities."

Pressing the Panic Button?

"The administration is trying to present this as a set of perfectly ordinary kind of transition measures that insurers normally make available to new customers ... But that's not what this looks like to [this author], and a few conversations today suggest it's not what it looks like to the insurers. To 'strongly encourage' insurers to take these kinds of steps (to use the Orwellian phrase of the HHS announcement), and to do it just a couple of weeks before the new system is supposed to start, suggests that the administration's health experts mapped out how January is shaping up and had a collective heart attack."

Employers Press Eighth Circuit to Block Iowa Law Threatening ERISA Plan Health Benefits

"The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) and allied organizations filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ... The lower court had ruled that certain provisions of a new Iowa state law -- Senate File 383 -- regulating [PBMs] are preempted by [ERISA], but that other provisions of the law were not preempted. In its brief with the Eighth Circuit, ERIC asked the court to affirm the lower court's decision in part and to reverse it in part to provide that all of Senate File 383 is preempted by ERISA." [Iowa Assoc. of Bus. and Ind. v. Ommen, No. 25-0211 (S.D. Iowa Jul. 21, 2025; on appeal to 8th Cir. No. 25-2494)]

Text of PBGC Press Release 20-04: Expansion of COVID-19 Relief for Variable-Rate Premium Filers

"[F]or premium filings due on or after March 1, 2020, and before January 1, 2021, the date by which 'prior year' contributions must be received by the plan to be included in plan assets will be extended to January 1, 2021. That means the discounted value of these contributions received by the plan after the premium is filed but on or before January 1, 2021, will be included in the asset value used to determine the variable-rate premium. Because of this relief, plans will be able to amend the premium filing to revise the originally reported asset value once all prior year contributions have been made and receive the corresponding refund of variable-rate premiums.' [PBGC notes that "This press release (PBGC PR 20-04) revises guidance issued July 20, 2020, COVID-19-Related Single-Employer Plan Sponsors and Administrators Questions and Answers (PBGC Web 016)."]

ARA Presses for Retirement Plan Relief in Coronavirus Stimulus Bill

"[T]he ARA has pressed for relief that would: [1] waive the Section 72(t) additional 10% penalty tax on early withdrawals from retirement plans for individuals who have a principal residence in a declared health emergency area and suffered economic loss; [2] permit individuals three years to repay distributions; [3] increase retirement plan loan limits to the lesser of $100,000 or 100% of the participant's vested account balance in a plan ... [4] allow individuals unable to repay loans to pay the income tax associated with a loan default over three years rather than all in the year of default; [5] allow individuals who borrowed from their plan and have a repayment due to delay their loan repayment for up to a year; [6] provide a wage credit for employee retention for employers impacted by the virus outbreak; [7] provide an automatic 60-day extension of tax-filing deadlines; and provide a temporary waiver for 2020 RMDs from DC plans and IRAs."

Stop the Presses! Politician Makes Positive Comments on Executive Compensation

"New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued a press release Wednesday titled, 'Wall Street Bonuses Went Up In 2013, Bonuses Were Boosted by Deferred Compensation' ... As explained by the Comptroller, this is good news.... [M]uch of the increase was attributable to deferred compensation, payable in later years and subject to forfeiture or clawback if current financial results turn out to be not as good as they first appeared. This is exactly what Dodd-Frank Act Section 956 and the 2010 Interagency Guidance on Sound Incentive Compensation Polices sought to achieve."