Politics & Government

City Pension Merger Finalized

Move will help keep property taxes down in 2012.

Property taxpayers in Southwest Minneapolis can breath a small sigh of relief with last week's news that the final merger of the city's firefighter and police officer pension system has been approved.

Costs associated with the pension schemes helped drive property taxes up last year, and could have added $20 million to the city's 2012 budget. With the merger approval, the city is no longer on the hook for further payments to the funds. In the past, the funds overcharged the city by more than $50 million.

Calling the pension systems "broken" in a written statement, Mayor RT Rybak's office heralded the decision.

Find out what's happening in Southwest Minneapoliswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"The old, broken system served almost no one well: it maximized risk and volatility for both pensioners and taxpayers," the statement said. "There is just one group for whom the broken system worked very well: the funds’ well-paid lobbyists and lawyers who made a lot of money trying to defend it."

Of course, this year's tax rate stability could turn out to be only a temporary reprieve. , the city's spiralling health care and other costs could force taxes up again in 2013.

Find out what's happening in Southwest Minneapoliswith free, real-time updates from Patch.


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