Give Now
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
  • Full Schedule
Watch Live

Pension Liabilities Take Bigger Bites out of Budgets

By Alison St John / Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published February 23, 2009 at 2:00 AM PST
This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The City of San Diego has gained national notoriety for its pension deficit. But as pension liabilities mount and the market plummets, other cities around San Diego County find themselves with even wo

Pension Liabilities Take Bigger Bites out of Budgets

The City of San Diego has gained national notoriety for its pension deficit. But as pension liabilities mount and the market plummets, other cities around San Diego County find themselves with even worse pension liabilities. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The city of San Diego has paid more than $150 million  into its pension fund this year to meet its obligations. But that’s not as big a share of its General Fund as Chula Vista and El Cajon pay  annually for their pension contributions.  

Advertisement
Become a KPBS sponsor

Chula Vista paid $23 million dollars this year to CALPERS, the agency that manages pension funds for most San Diego cities. That eats up 16% of the general fund  the city uses to provide services for its residents.

Maria Kachadoorian, Chula Vista’s finance director, says that share will only get bigger as the effects of the current market melt down will hit in next year. 

Kachadoorian : "If it’s significant, we would have a significant impact to our rates. At this point we’re assuming about a  $two million additional hit, so we are trying to be conservative. "

Kachadoorian says Chula Vista is paying off pension obligation bonds it sold a decade ago, to help cover the cost, and the city has also reduced its payroll.

But the city is struggling to deal with declining revenues : a drop off in developer fees and falling property values after five years of rapid growth.

Advertisement
Become a KPBS sponsor

Residents will vote on a one cent sales tax increase in May  

Alison St John, KPBS news.

Alison St John
Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.
More News