The county’s pension obligation bond work group is holding an informational session today (at 9:30 a.m. in room 203-R of the courthouse). It would be fun to attend just to see if there is a quorum of any County Board committee and then to ask if the meeting has been noticed as a potential County Board committee meeting. It would also be interesting, if there is not a quorum of any committee, to wonder why the hell not and why there is so little interest on the part of supervisors.
County Supervisor John Weishan is skeptical of the plan to issue $400 million in county pension obligation bonds. The county’s proposal is to issue the bonds at 6% and invest the proceeds to get an 8% return. That’s all fine and dandy as long as the county can get an 8% return, but the market hasn’t been kind to investors lately and yesterday fell to a 12-year low. Yes, the market will rise again some day, but when? And what risks should the county take until then?
Weishan’s concern is not only risk, but the county’s plan for the bonds — or more accurately, it’s lack of a plan. If a 95% funded plan is the goal, he said, “this isn’t going to do it.”
In addition, experts on this topic advise that “you have to make a commitment that you’re not going to allow another unfunded liability to develop,” he said. Can the county, with all its huge fiscal problems, actually do that?
Weishan believes that one reason the bond issuance looks so attractive right now is that the timing of the deal and the influx of bond funds, could allow the county to skip a pension payment next year — a payment, according to the JS, that could be as much as $80 million. That one-year break would give the county the illusion of a little bit of financial stability, which County Executive Scott Walker likely would appreciate as he runs for governor.
Walker can’t be serious, can he?
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009Didn’t anyone provide County Executive Scott Walker with a copy of the federal stimulus legislation? Is he pretending to be totally unfamiliar with it? Or is he really such a dolt he hasn’t bothered to become at all informed about what is in it?
The bill says what the stimulus money can be used for. Across-the-board tax cuts, such as Walker proposed yesterday, isn’t among the approved purposes.
Tax cuts also don’t fix the county roads that are falling apart, or the huge deferred maintenance backlog that has only grown worse since Walker took the helm.
It’s a shame that when the country, county and their citizens are bleeding, Walker is out there pandering to his ever-narrower base instead of working for the broadest common good.
Tags: Milwaukee County, Scott Walker, stimulus
Posted in Commentary, Milwaukee County, Scott Walker | 2 Comments »