by Matt Marquardt –
MASON CITY – A retirement plan for policemen and firefighters will cost Mason City over $1.3 million in 2013, according to the city’s 2013 budget.
The city must contribute 26.12% of annual payroll of active employees for the period of July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013. That is up from 24.76% from the same period a year earlier. The minimum rate is 17%.
Police and fire employees currently contribute 9.4% of their wages to the plan. In 2010 the contribution rate was adjusted to 9.40% to establish the presumption that cancer and infectious diseases are considered work-related for purposes of disability and death benefits of active members.
The retirement plan Mason City participates in is called the Municipal Fire and Police Retirement System of Iowa, a statewide retirement system for fire fighters and police officer personnel employed in Iowa’s largest cities. The system was created on January 1, 1992 by the Iowa Legislature. It consolidated eighty-seven local retirement systems previously administered in forty-nine cities. The system is a benefit plan, maintained to provide income to employees upon their retirement. The system also provides benefits in the event of an employee’s death or disability, or in the event of a vested employee’s termination of employment prior to normal retirement.
The plan is governed by a nine-member Board of Trustees who are appointed to the Board by police and fire associations and by the Iowa League of Cities. The eight voting members select a private citizen to serve as the ninth voting member. The Board is authorized by the state legislature to make investments, pay benefits, set contributions rates, hire staff and consultants and perform all necessary functions to carry out the provisions of the Code of Iowa. The System is separate and apart from state government and is not included in the state’s financial statements.
According to this report, there are currently 3,908 members statewide in the plan with an average age of 40.7 years. Current benefit amounts are based upon a percentage of the member’s average monthly earnable compensation. The average monthly earnable compensation is calculated by adding the member’s earnable compensation for the highest three years of service and dividing it by 36. The percentage multiplier varies by type of retirement and the length of the member’s service. The benefit percentage for a service retirement is 66% with 22 years of service and 82% with 30 year of service.
The alternative is that they take bribes. Do the math
I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH GIVING OUR PUBLIC EMPLOYEES A PENSION, BUT ITS TOO MUCH, OUR SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE LOOKED AT. THESE GUYS ARE MAKING 40K TO 60K A YEAR AND THEY SHOULD BE CONTRIBUTING MORE. OUR TAX BASE IS WAY TO HIGH HERE IN MASON CITY. WE HAVE NO LARGE COMPANIES SELECTING OUR TOWN FOR BUILDING THEIR FACTORIES. I HATE TO SAY THIS BUT OUR CITY IS DOOMED WITH ALL THIS SPENDING ABD YOU CAN BET YOUR DOLLARS THAT MOST OF OUR FORMER CITY WORKERS LEAVE THIS AREA FOR BETTER PLACES TO LIVE WHERE THE BULLSHIT DOESNT STINK AS BAD. IVE BEEN HERE 53 YEARS AND WHEN MY WIFE RETIRES FROM MERCY WERE GONE. SOME ONE IN CITY HALL HAS TO GROW A SET OF NUTS AND SAY TO MUCH SPENDING HAS TO STOP. BY THE WAY CITY WORKERS I APPRECIATE WHAT YOU DO FOR US BUT LOOK INTO THE FUTURE UNIONS ARE GOING TO BE A THING OF THE PAST. THANKS YOU
don’t let the door hit you in the ass Orville. Negativity such as yours does not help.
The out of control benefit packages being gifted to public sector employees will SOON bankrupt the system.
The Private sector funds their own retirements in most cases! Why do I have to provide EVERYTHING for our public servants?
This maddness can not last. Why wont the public sector take less, just like the private sector has been forced to do?
Pure poetry. Pure truth.
Actually if you were to run the numbers the city is money ahead to use this system vs. paying into SS, workers comp, and a simple 401k type plan. At least you get something for the money being spent. Better to provide a salary and pension to someone willing to work for it then handing it out to welfare recipeants that milk the system. Unless you’re the burden on society that is. I don’t think that $50,000 a year is out of line for someone that works 2756 hours or more a year. those are medium fiqures for a firefighter/paramedic with about 8 years of service and does not include overtime.
Beermeyer is a white collar wanabee. I’ll say wanabee because he chooses not to work so he really don’t qualify for anything else. It also makes it impossible for him to respect real people that work for a living. They spend their lives mingling with people who place themselves on high altars wishing they were one of them and not realising in most cases that takes hard work and dedication. He will never respect the blue collar workers of this community.
Don’t you idiots know Bookmeyer is qualified to run fortune 500 companies? He is not working because the are bidding on him. Some lucky company like Ford will hire him as CEO soon.
Hey Matt now I see beermeyer, trouser trout and the trained monkey gazette are trying to justify all the outsourcing. It has to feel good that your work in exposing the good old boys club in MC has the glob on the run to try to discredit you. Great job.
I heard about that story.
Yes, now even the local newspaper has thrown the common man under the bus. They, along with leaders at city hall, want to outsource your jobs and send your tax dollars away as fast as their hands can sign checks. Glad to see they exposed themselves once again. Pretty soon Trout and Bookmeyer will abolish the MCPD and hire Blackwater to come in here to provide public safety, and the glob will write about what a great idea that is. Be careful folks, city hall is selling you out.
The other side of this would be to have our city staff do the work… you and I get the higher tax bill! Sounds like you wouldnt have any problem with that! But yet you rant about saving dollars elsewhere! Which is it?
At no time in this informational story did I advocate for or against the current system. I explained the system and how much it costs. Why are you feebily trying to twist this story? It is not an op-ed.
I believe participation in this system is required by law. Blame falls on the legislature. Also, I recall that there are only 1 or 2 retired firefighters who still get medical benefits. Not all retorted get them.
Yes, the local systems that were in place years ago were failing. That is why the Iowa Legislature got involved. It is reported all over the state that the cities want out of this system. I do not know the current situation at City Hall here in Mason City but I have heard grumblings. There is no question, however, that police and fire personnel deserve a good retirement plan.
And I believe that the $1.3 million includes both the city contribution and the employee contribution. Because the city withholds the employees portion and pays it into the fund, it has to show up as an expense in the budget.
In the world of pension plans, there are so many that are underfunded, be glad that this system, for now, is healthy and will maintain it’s value for the workers.
I despise reading the news, and finding story after story of pension plans failing, or companies that go bankrupt and employees find out there is nothing left in the pension fund. The worst of course was the plight of Wisconsin Steel, where workers, mostly 55 or older, had nothing. That struck a raw nerve with me.
There are a few other plans out there in the private sector that pay just as well, and do not contribute to Social Security. All one has to do is go out and find them. It’s well worth the sacrifice one has to make.
Railroads for one!
That is just the tip of the iceberg. They have a special plan if you stay longer. Also someone in the City should look at how we taxpayers fund and pay for prescriptions for the retired Police and Fire as well as work comp prescriptions. But if it is not your money who really cares.
Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP)
Active members, at least 55-years-of-age, with 22 or more years of service have the option to participate in the DROP Program. The DROP is an arrangement whereby a member who is otherwise eligible to retire and commence benefits opts to continue to work. A member can elect a 3, 4, or 5 year DROP period. By electing to participate in DROP the member is signing a contract indicating the member will retire at the end of the selected DROP period.
During the DROP period the member’s retirement benefit is frozen and a DROP benefit is credited to a DROP Account established for the member. The DROP benefit is equal to 52% of the member’s retirement benefit at the member’s earliest date eligible and 100% if the member delays enrollment for 24 months. At the member’s actual date of retirement, the member’s DROP Account will be distributed to the member in the form of a lump sum or rollover to an eligible plan.
Can you translate that into plain English?
And the non taxpayer funded retirement plan is I hope they don,t get rid of me because of my age.