Pension fix in the works

Key concerns

Regarding “Mayor unveils pension deal” (Page A1, Thursday), I’m proud Mayor Turner had the courage to propose a sound pension reform for city, fire and police unions with some reduction in benefits. Unless we address the serious shortfalls of sufficient funding for the three pension funds, it in entirely possible that Houston would someday have to file bankruptcy as Detroit did.

I disagree with the mayor on one point, namely the issuance of $1 billion in bonds. As Josh McGee, a pension expert from the Arnold Foundation, said, it would be better for the city to simply pay the money into the pension time over time. I also agree with the mayor’s plan to put a measure on the Nov. 7 ballot to repeal the revenue cap, which limits property tax collections. I’m a property owner and my taxes will go up, but I’m completely OK with that.

I was born in Houston 79 years ago and I’m proud of our city, our city workers, our firefighters and our police. These three unions deserve a good solid retirement, and all citizens should support them and bear the necessary costs.

David Schubert, Houston

Firefighters

I think the mayor’s pension deal is more than generous. The firefighters are being greedy. Today none of the big companies including the Fortune 500 are offering defined ben- efit plans. They are offering defined contribution plans. No one is guaranteeing a successful result. Why do the firefighters believe that they should get a guaranteed benefit when no one in private industry is offering such a pension plan?

Perhaps, we would be better off contributing their pension benefits to an account which allows them or their union to determine the investments for their pension contributions. It could be like an IRA with the same tax benefits, but they could be responsible for handling and guaranteeing their own investments.

Houston will go broke paying these defined benefit plans and we won’t be able to hire any fire fighters, policemen or civil servants.

Lauren Kramer, Houston