As reported in the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore City Council’s finance committee is scheduled to hear testimony Thursday on a proposal by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to require thousands of civilian employees to begin making contributions. As described,
The proposal would require non-public-safety workers to contribute 1 percent of their salaries to the pension fund next fiscal year. The contributions would increase each year for five years until workers were contributing 5 percent. . . To help compensate for the changes, Rawlings-Blake is proposing a raise for employees of 2 percent a year for five years.
Officials said the pension change and pay increase would cost the city about $180,000 next fiscal year but begin saving money after that: $2.1 million in 2015, $4.4 million in 2016, $6.5 million in 2017, and $8.5 million in 2018.
The savings would help the city fund property tax cuts of 22 percent over the next decade, said Ryan O’Doherty, the mayor’s spokesman.
