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Monday, September 24, 2007
Flashback: Smitherman’s Warning about the Retirement System
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
On June 30, 2006, we featured the following video with Christopher Smitherman, warning about an upcoming disaster concerning the retirement system. His projected dates may have been off, but given the recent developments regarding the retirement system, it seems time to revisit his warnings! (Smitherman was even interviewed for this article in the New York Times by Mary Williams Walsh.) We must face the potential problems with the system if we are going to support the retirees in any real way.
One must wonder if driving the City to bankruptcy is part of a plan to establish a regional government like they did in Indianapolis—so we can force all the poor people out of the region for massive 3CDC-like redevelopment.
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24 Sep 2007 at 11:18 pm | #
The retirement system is not facing bankruptcy. In fact, is return on investment has been better than expected since 2002, weighing in at a staggering 13% growth rate. Which isn’t bad when your assets are valued at over $2 billion. The city manager just wanted to cook the books and raid the retirees’ pension plans to obscure the true depth of the city’s budget deficit. If he had been successful the budget is in the red to the tune of $20 million plus, now the deficit is likely to be $30 million plus. Tough fiscal times are ahead, but that doesn’t mean the city should balance the budget on the backs of those who built it.
24 Sep 2007 at 11:21 pm | #
Just how, exactly, are “we” going to “support” the retirees in any “real way”? You really don’t have much say on the issue.
I vividly remember this Smitherman psycho-rant. Oh, do I! And if my memory serves me correctly, which it generally does, Smitherman never put up his actuarial figuresto support his Chicken Little-the sky is falling theory. Furthermore, he never stated what tables he used, if it was his own cooked-up formula, nothing.
The city has had it’s eyes on a regional corridor. Most people realize that with Butler County populating North, there’s going to be a Cincy-Dayton regional corridor government. That’s going to be a problem because Dayton is such a hole. Other cities have done it successfully, up off the top - the Dallas-Ft. Worth megapolis. In the bargain, they’ve gobbled up little towns & folded them in. It’s a thriving, thumping area, flush with cash. Prides itself on a true, fully diverse area with hundreds of cultures.
I don’t see where the city’s going to go belly up. They’re going to have to make hard, wise choices & make honest, true economic development a front & center priority. Shore up the financial kettle. You know, the corporate welfare thing. A city can’t fund items & programs where there isn’t a solid rate of return. Hence, I believe programs such as this Human Services business is going to suffer a very bitter blow. However, those who threaten & beg for the money can’t say they didn’t know it was coming. They’ve been warned time & again for the past 3 years.
What Dohoney did to the retirees was take them by surprise. Many retirees didn’t know until last week when a cold, cheesy post card arrived in the mail stating that Uncle Milty was going to put the screws to them! Hell, the post office workers knew about the grand scheme before the retiree collected the mail! He cooked this sham up to sacrifice them & the old folks had to mobilize in a very short period of time. He was going to lose anyway. The retirees signed, along with the City, a binding irrevocable agreement. Had Dohoney tried to be a hard head, the Court costs alone would have taken care of the City’s money.
At any rate, it was rather enjoyable to see Smitherman at one of his best, unravelled times once again. I knew he was full of wind the first time around. This time, it was hilarious.
25 Sep 2007 at 11:25 am | #
He ranted like this for two years on Council about this “impending disaster”, and never proposed any solutions. Bizarre grandstanding, but no solutions or results. Exactly why he lost.
26 Sep 2007 at 08:22 pm | #
Everyone should have a great pension system like me… it’s time.