Santa Rosa City Council is considering selling more than $100 million of bonds to raise cash for its growing pension debt, a step that could ease budgeting in years to come but carries enough risk that some municipal financing experts warn against it.
The costs of expensive earlier pension plans and losses the California Public Employees’ Retirement System accrued during the 2008 financial crisis will come to a head in the next 10 years, as annual payments Santa Rosa makes to the agency increase each year to peak at almost $43 million in 2031.
Paying off those debts affects daily life in the city. Every dollar dumped into pension debt is one less dollar city officials have for programs or for reacting to problems that range from crime to natural disasters.
To curb the payments, Santa Rosa’s chief finance officer Jan Mazyck has proposed the city use an investment mechanism known as pension obligation bonds. The bonds could raise cash at low interest rates and dump that cash into pension funds — a move that both lowers pension debt and increases the funds’ earning power by providing more money to invest.
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