The Jacksonville Civic Council today urged the Jacksonville City Council to approve Mayor Lenny Curry’s collective bargaining agreements, presented to the City Council yesterday afternoon as an important step toward comprehensive pension reform.
“Mayor Curry’s defined contribution plan is a crucial step toward addressing Jacksonville’s enormous unfunded pension liability,” said JCC Chairman Ed Burr, “and we urge our City Council members to support it. The Mayor’s plan will unlock the sales tax revenue approved by a wide margin by voters last August and provide both immediate and long-term benefits to new employees, including portability and greater control of their retirement assets.”
“Mayor Curry’s defined contribution plan is a crucial step toward addressing Jacksonville’s enormous unfunded pension liability,” said JCC Chairman Ed Burr, “and we urge our City Council members to support it. The Mayor’s plan will unlock the sales tax revenue approved by a wide margin by voters last August and provide both immediate and long-term benefits to new employees, including portability and greater control of their retirement assets.”
“Since our initial engagement with this issue,” Burr continued, “the Civic Council has consistently advocated for a solution that addresses the city’s unmanageable pension deficit while providing fair and competitive compensation to our valued first responders. Mayor Curry’s pension reform proposals meet those conditions and we congratulate the Mayor and his team and ask City Council members to support the proposals and put our city on the road to financial sustainability at last.”
Burr went on, “we believe that the long-term shift to a defined contribution plan with a dedicated source of revenue to pay down the city’s rapidly-growing unfunded pension liability is the best option and it is no exaggeration to say that this burgeoning debt is the greatest threat to our community’s future.”
JCC’s mission is to promote a fiscally responsible, economically vibrant, thriving community that offers opportunity for all its residents.
