Pension Funding not Up to Par

The city of Lynn has unfunded pension obligations of almost $451 million for 2,020 retired employees and 1497 current employees.

This is not new news.

It is the same old news and quite likely, nothing will be done about it.

All across the state, cities and towns owe billions upon billions in unfunded pension obligations.

What’s worse is that the cost of pension obligations is rising dramatically, further complicating a difficult situation.

In some communities like Chelsea, residents there are paying back their unfunded obligations at a higher rate. Chelsea is unique in this instance. It is able to do what much richer cities and towns are putting off.

It is impossible to imagine that the City of Lynn owes more than Lowell – a much larger city with many more public employees but it does.

The under funded pension situation is a literal Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of residents of nearly every city and town in Massachusetts.

But we continue to do nothing about it.

Sooner or later the whole house of cards will come down on us.

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