The Better Government Association has just rolled out a statewide police and fire pension database. It tracks public safety pensions for every municipality, township, and special district (e.g., fire protection district) that have one or both types of pension funds.
According to this database, DeKalb’s fire pension showed a net liability of $42.7 million and a 39.21% funding ratio “as of 2016.” At the same point in time, the police pension fund had a net liability of $34.4 million and a funding ratio of 48.77%. The combined net liability, then, was a bit over $77 million.
I’ve checked the BGA numbers against the city’s latest annual financial report to make sure they’re in the same ballpark, and they are.
What the BGA database doesn’t tell you about is DeKalb’s other long-term liabilities related to retirees. One is the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) — yeah, it’s not 100% funded as you might think. The city’s latest reported IMRF net liability is $9.4 million and funding at 83.2%.
Another, as discussed here a few months ago, is the Other Post-Employment Benefits, which is a defined-benefit retiree health insurance plan. OPEB — which our financial consultants have twice urged us to dump in favor of a defined-contribution PEHP plan* — has an unfunded long-term liability of $23.9 million and a funding ratio of 0% because the city doesn’t fund this plan in advance.
Audited numbers for 2017 should come out in May. Meantime, we’re looking at unfunded retirement-related liabilities of $110 million.
*City employees hired since 2011 do participate in a PEHP instead of OPEB.
BONUS: DeKalb’s pension funding ratios as of 1999 (as reported in the fiscal 2004 financial report):
IMRF: 109.49%
Police: 88.52%
Fire: 62.13%