Shreveport Pension Fund Severely Underfunded

Shreveport leaders are facing a monumental financial crisis on the pension front. Councilman John Nickelson tells KEEL News the city's pension fund is only 48% funded. He says that means "we only have assets to cover 48% of our projected liabilities."

Nickelson says the city has been battling this problem for years and changes have been made to increase the amount the city is contributing and how much employees must contribute.

He says new numbers now show things are getting worse and the city only has 41% of the money needed to cover the pension program. Nickelson says part of the problem is the market. "The city had a bad year in the stock market. In 2017, we made 13% , but in 2018 we lost about 3.75%. But the real concern is not about that one year loss, it's more about what will happen over the next 15 years."

Nickelson says at the end of 2018, the pension system had a balance of 174 million. If we don't do anything, in 15 years we will have only 116 million in assets and paying 34 million a year in benefits.