I was told that the proposed budget for this year addressed this.. I had a chance to flip through the budget.
OPEB stands for Other Post Employment Benefits, which mainly means health insurance. In the case of Worcester, the unfunded OPEB benfits are $636,000,000 versus $410,000,000 for the unfunded pension liability. Keep in mind I got the unfunded numbers from the June 2013 Audit.
The only thing I can find is on page 287:
Five Point Plan
- 9,708,794 Capital Campaign Stabilization
- 1,000,000 City Square Reserve fund
- 5,501,101 Bond rating stabilization fund
- 3,047,000 North High School Construction fund
- 4,351,100 OPEB Trust Fund
Assume this 44,351,100 is going to the unfunded liability that was set at $636,000,000 last year. Evidently then it looks like no money went to the unfunded pension liability.
Keep in mind that this unfunded number varies and depends on alot of factors. We need to keep an eye on the updated unfunded pension liability and OPEB number that comes out in the June 2014 audit and hope that we meet the goal of this year’s budget and pay the $4,351,100 towards the OPEB debt.
