S.F. incurs huge costs for public retirees

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

In San Francisco's effort to pay the soaring cost for retiree health benefits, it's $500,000 down, $4.9 billion to go.

The city, like most local governments and school districts in California, has put aside no money to cover the fast-growing cost of delivering on health care coverage promised to its workers once they hit retirement age.

But in San Francisco, the financial liability hanging over the city is one of the heaviest in the state, thanks in part to the generosity of its employee health care benefits.

"As this number keeps growing ... it can cripple our budget,'' said Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who has taken the lead on trying to address the issue in the city's legislative body. "This will eat up all our discretionary income, the money we use for street repairs, parks and programs for the people of San Francisco.''

The $4.9 billion unfunded liability confronting San Francisco, California's only combined city-county, is bigger than that the city of Los Angeles ($3.2 billion), San Diego County ($1.38 billion) and San Mateo County ($469 million). But it trails the state of California at $48 billion, Los Angeles County at $16 billion and Los Angeles Unified School District at $10 billion in costs.

Now, however, governments across the country are being forced to acknowledge the approaching financial tsunamis. Beginning this fiscal year, a little-known agency, the Government Accounting Standards Board, will require them to at least spell out the amount of unfunded future health care benefits in their budgets.

Their benefits is your tax increase.