HMEPS’ Response to Current Pension Legislation
As you may know, the 84th session of the Texas Legislature is underway in Austin. Over the next several months, House and Senate Members will consider hundreds of bills on a wide array of issues relevant to state government. You should be aware that there are bills (specifically HB2608 and HB2955) that concern us a…
Read More »HMEPS Refutes Claims In Chronicle Article
The Houston Chronicle article on 7/6/2015 (“Houston’s debt outlook downgrade a warning, analyst says”) stated, “more than 95 percent of the $130 million general fund spending increase in Parker's budget this year is swallowed by contractual payments, namely pension obligations.” We were surprised by this statement because the increase in pension expenditures attributable to the…
Read More »TEXPERS Response to Misinformation
HMEPS is sharing with you two important articles regarding public pensions that were released Friday, September 4. The first one, which was published in the Houston Chronicle, is an opinion piece written by state Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, who is Chair of the Texas House Pensions Committee. The other is a press release written by…
Read More »City Commissioned Pension Report Ignores a Decade of Reform
At a recent City Council Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting, the City’s representative made a presentation on a variety of pension-related topics. The presentation summarized a report prepared by the City’s actuary, Retirement Horizons Inc. (RHI), that the City commissioned and that attempts to identify “cost savings” that can be realized through proposed cuts…
Read More »HMEPS Responds to Pension Misinformation
In a recent opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle – “Houston, there is a pension problem” (October 1, 2014) -- Daniel DiSalvo, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute provided inaccurate and misleading information regarding the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System (HMEPS). Public employees did not create the City's financial problems, but HMEPS has worked with…
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