Never let it be said that I don't seek out and in many cases welcome opinions that are different from my own. Ben over at YPP shared his thoughts about the municipal pension issue, disagreeing that there is, in fact, a "crisis" as I and others have been saying.
He cites the same PICA report that I've been waving around when he says:
Let’s look at the numbers. According to a report from PICA, employee benefits are going to grow by 25% over the next three years (FY 06=FY 09) and debt service is going to increase by 30% and other spending obligations will increase by 5.7 % whereas is only expected to increase by 7.9 %. So, the city is obviously going to spending a bit more on pensions.
I think there might be a word missing in there but I'm not sure what it is. His point is, that while the increase in pension costs is real, it's also manageable and shouldn't be used as an excuse for cutting programs.
Join their discussion about this and please share your thoughts here as well.