The top local stories this morning from KERA News:
The city of Fort Worth is staring down the barrel of a $1.6 billion pension problem. The retirement fund for city workers, police officers and firefighters is likely to run out of money in two to three decades if nothing is done.
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price says shoring it up will be emotional and difficult, but crucial.
“It impacts not only our 6,000-plus current employees, it impacts the 4,500 retirees and every one of the 900,000 citizens in Fort Worth,” Price said. “It’s a really difficult issue to balance, and if we don’t address it, the system will go bankrupt.”
Fixing the pension fund will likely require a combination of cutting payouts to retirees, increasing contributions from current employees, and putting more taxpayer dollars toward the pension system.
Marsha Anderson sits on the city’s pension fund task force, and is concerned about talk of reducing cost of living adjustments for retired city workers like her who rely on pension payouts.
“The retirees that we’re talking about are not out here getting rich,” Anderson said. “We earned those benefits, we believed the city. At this point, we’re not going to join the workforce again.”
If the city council approves the plan, it would go to city employees for a vote and it would need a majority in order to go into effect.
Other stories this morning:
- Texas Rangers pitcher Bartolo Colon went seven innings in his 246th career victory. The win makes Colon the winningest Latin American-born pitcher in major league history. The Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners 11-4 in Arlington.
- Plans to upload blueprints to the internet for 3D-printed guns are on hold as lawsuits crop up around the country seeking to control their distribution; and as with any new technology the law is playing catch-up. UT Arlington professor Lewis Wasserman talked with KERA’s Justin Martin about the legal challenges of keeping up with the cutting edge of technology.
You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
