A special election will be held in tandem with the Tuesday primary on a proposed 0.4-mill increase on property taxes citywide to help prevent the pension funds for more than 150 uniformed public safety employees and their spouses from becoming insolvent.
The public will vote on whether to raise the millage by 0.2 mills each for both the Firemen’s Pension Fund and the Police Pension Fund. The firemen’s fund has been declared “projected insolvent” by a state board, meaning it will not be able to make payments for another 10 years unless its funding is increased. The police fund is not projected to be insolvent in 10 years but also has funding issues, state and local financial officials have said.
The city currently levies for each fund an annual tax of 0.8 mills on the assessed value of real and personnel property in the city. State law allows a maximum amount of 1 mill to be applied to each fund.
The police pension fund was created in 1941 and the fireman’s pension fund was created in 1947. In 1983, the state created a statewide pension fund for police and firefighters, but those who served before then are paid only by the city’s funds. Federal law does not allow those retired police and firefighters to receive Social Security because they are covered by local pension plans and any Social Security they receive would be the result of having worked other jobs.
“For the older generation that worked in the fire department, their checks are not much at all because we didn’t make much money back then,” retired fire chief Eddie Lunsford said at a recent civic club meeting. “When we started getting raises in 1969 and 1970, things got a little bit better but for those people who worked prior to that, it’s pretty low, and of course they don’t get Social Security checks so it’s a serious situation.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Currently, there are 79 retired police officers or their surviving spouses receiving checks from the police pension fund and 73 retired firefighters or their surviving spouses receiving checks from the firemen’s pension fund.
Current Fire and Emergency Services Battalion Chief Tellis Rushing, who will receive benefits from the fund when he retires, said in a recent interview that the retirees are not trying to improve their benefits — just keep them the same and try to prevent them from running out.
Rushing said that some of those who retired currently receive pensions that pay less than $1,000 per month because there were no provisions made for cost of living increases to keep up with the economy.
Retired police captain Kenny Heroman said at a City Council meeting on the millage that there were many times in his 23-year career that he or other officers could have taken jobs elsewhere for higher salaries, but they decided to stay in Pine Bluff because they loved what they did.
“But we also hoped that by staying at those lower wages that there was light at the end of the tunnel in the form of those pensions,” Heroman said.
Using an example of a $75,000 house, the taxpayer would owe an additional $6 a year in taxes if both proposed millage increases are approved.
State and local financial officials have said the millage increase will not completely solve the pension funds’ problems, but that increasing them is an important first step before other sources of funding can be pursued.