Dallas will face tight budgets for the next few years, partly because it must keep hiring more police, paying them more and contributing more to the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund. In January, that fund, which has about 11,600 members, was $3.73 billion short of what it needs to meet its existing obligations.
But selling pension obligation bonds, sometimes called POBs, to help fill that gap will only make a bad situation worse. We wish the city manager and some city council members would back away from this proposal. Issuing long-term debt to help pay an unfunded liability isn’t a last resort, it’s a should-never-happen resort. Ask the experts. On its website, the Government Finance Officers Association cautions, with a warning…