Pine Bluff Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. made a pitch for support for the May 22 special election on increasing the millage rate for the pension funds of retired police officers and firefighters Tuesday.
Joined by Finance Director Steve Miller, retired Pine Bluff fire chief Eddie Lunsford, and retired Pine Bluff police captain Lee Hurd, Redus discussed the election during the weekly meeting of the Pine Bluff Rotary Club at the Pine Bluff Country Club.
He said the proposed vote would increase the millage to support the pension funds by two one-hundredths of a cent for each fund, raising the rate to one mill. The increase would cost a homeowner with an assessed value of $75,000 a total of $6 more per year than what they are currently paying.
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, which are being depleted.
According to Miller, the State Pension Review Board projects that the fireman’s pension fund will be insolvent and unable to pay benefits in under 10 years, and the police pension fund is also declining in value. Pine Bluff is not alone in that situation as Miller said other cities are also facing the problem.
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Additionally, Redus said 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,” Lunsford said. “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.”
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.
“I’m going to be retired in less that four years and we’ve got to shore up the fund,” said current Fire and Emergency Services Battalion Chief Tellis Rushing. “If something happens to me, my wife will be able to draw a pension from the fund.
“Our goal is to keep everything the way it is, to keep the system solvent, and maybe we can get some help from the state,” Rushing said.
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.
“If the economy picks up, and we get a little help here (with a yes vote on election day), and a little help from the state, I think we will be OK, but that’s a big ‘if’,” he said.