Union Head: Bill Could Hurt County Pension System

The head of one Baltimore County employees union said a bill .

The bill, which will be voted on by the County Council tonight, won't likely bring the county any savings for years. Meanwhile, if the bill is passed, affected county employees will pay less into an already underfunded pension system, according to John Ripley, president of the Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees.

Ripley said the bill will only affect benefits for any new employee hired after the pension bill goes into effect. Those employees wouldn't be eligible to retire for at least a decade.

"There will be no savings for a minimum of 10 years," said Ripley. "Mostly likely, those savings, if any, would be 35 years away."

Currently, employees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are negotiating a new contract with the county. County officials say the unions refuse to bargain over the pension benefit.

Union officials say the county is bargaining in bad faith by trying to legislate changes in the pension system that should be negotiated.

Ripley said the lack of a tangible benefit over the next 30 years "is further proof that this move is just spiteful and vindictive."

The bill would affect about 834 out of 9,600 county employees—mostly snowplow drivers, vehicle maintenance workers and employees who maintain the county sewers—who are currently paying into the system based on their overtime.

The county auditor estimates affected employees earned about $3.5 million in overtime in 2011.

County officials told the council last week that the situation came to a head in 2010 when back-to-back blizzards increased overtime to a point where it will allow employees to retire with as much as $4,000 in additional retirement benefits than their base salary would typically allow.

The county estimates the change will ultimately save the county $368,000 annually.

County Administrative Officer Fred Homan announced last week that a recent report now estimates that the county's system is 77 percent funded—down from about 80 percent last year.

"We've come to the point where this is essential," Homan told the council last week. "It's a policy and practice that no longer can be tolerated."

The bill won't change those payments to employees who have already paid into the system.

"This bill won't likely save the county any money," Ripley said. "The county can only save money if it suffers a series of catastrophic weather events like we did in 2010. Those employees, however, will no longer be paying into the system based on their overtime and that will inevitably hurt the pension system."