It's been a few weeks since I brought up the ticking time bomb that is the municipal worker pension issue.
It's clear that within the next few years, the amount of money the city will need to meet its pension obligations is going to eat up a significant portion of the budget. However, did you also know that currently, in some places, public employees attempt to "spike" their pensions in order to get a higher payments during retirement?
Governing.com columnist Girard Miller explains it best but essentially since the amount that a retiree receives each year in his or her pension can be a percentage of their last (or highest) annual salary, the worker will work a lot of overtime or cash in several unused sick and/or vacation days in order to inflate that number well above where it should be. The city (or county or state) ends up paying much more during that employees retirement than they would if such spiking didn't occur. Ultimately, though, the taxpayers are footing the bill since that's where the money comes from in the first place.
I don't know if such a thing happens in Philly (or if the "diluted" version that Miller talks about happens) but it wouldn't surprise me. There are ways to fix this problem and Miller explains a few - including diverting "sidecar" deferred compensation plans that would contribute to 401k-type plans a percentage based on income that is above the base salary.
But... like all seemingly logical solutions, once political considerations are taken into account, the math seems to get a lot fuzzier.