"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."  MORE >>