Minneapolis Pension Levies
From:
Carol Becker
Date:
Apr 02 12:46 UTC
Short link
Steve Brandt <<email obscured>> said:
> I think that this may be a rare case of Carol being incorrect, unless
there's a technicality in her answer that I'm missing. The Council in 2003
shifted $12.5 million from the Legacy Fund to pay debt service on pension
bonds. For the council action, search on "Legacy" at:
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/archives/proceedings/2003/20031215-proceedings-adj.pdf
Let me clarify myself here as I see that I was not clear enough in my original
post. I was asked if there is any relationship between pensions and the
Legacy funding. They are two separate pots of money generated from two
completely separate sources. The pensions are primarily from investments,
contributions, and state aid. The Hilton (Legacy) money is payback from the
hotel of a loan made by the Council to be sure there was a flagship hotel for
the new (at the time) Convention Center. The two funding sources are
completely separate, which is what I meant in my original post. (obviously not
clearly now that I see people's responses).
The Hilton (Legacy) money is unrestricted money, available to be used for
anything. The City has used some of it for one-time pension payments. It
could be used for that again. It could use it to fill potholes or buy cop
cars or do another development deal. It could fund NRP (not on an on-going
basis but one-time money). Having used it for pensions doesn't mean that
there is less money for NRP except in the sense that you have to make
trade-offs with unrestricted money among many high priority items.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough in my original post. Thanks to Steve
Brandt and the other folks who chimed in on this question.
Carol Becker
Longfellow
Board of Estimate and Taxation