Follow this logic: When pensions are underfunded to the tune of $3.7 billion, there's essentially a run on the pension fund...where people know that if they don't get their hands on the funds, they won't be available to those at the tail end of the line. This encourages earlier retirements and discourages becoming the new hire who is funding the retirees while not obtaining benefit payments when his/her number comes up, years in the future.Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata and others sounded the alarm months ago: Now, by the end of this month, Mata says 72 Dallas Police officers will leave: 70 percent of them are retiring and the other 30 percent are going to make more money at other departments. “We’re losing some of our most experienced detectives: The investigator you want to come out and solve that homicide, that you need to come out and solve that sexual assault.”
Adam McGough, chairman of the Dallas city council’s public safety committee, is also expressing concern. “That’s the first of this number I heard of it. Anytime we have large numbers of officers leaving, it’s concerning.”
Most officers are leaving as a result of a crisis at the police and fire pension fund.
So, you get less cops in a major metro area like Dallas. Then you get to the Baltimore type scenario where the ones still on the payroll have such fear that they refuse to respond to calls. (Being in a border state, one can assume that refugees and illegal immigrants will find Dallas more attractive with less police force.) This, in turn, leaves the citizen with response times that are wildly unacceptable and fatal in some instances. If the cops aren't responding, will an ambulance or a fire department? One can envision a scenario where citizens are on their own for quite some time in Dallas. Thing is, Dallas is the location of this story, but it's more widespread than that.
Understanding that financial matters aren't in the wheelhouse of pro-RKBA groups, it bears mentioning that the skill sets we hone at the range may become more necessary than recreational.As part of their study, Boston College reviewed 170 public pension plans in the U.S. and found that their average 2016 return was an abysmal 0.6% compared to an average assumed return of 7.6%.