League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	San Francisco County, CA November 5, 2013 Election
	Proposition A Retiree Health Care Trust Fund City of San Francisco Majority Approval Required Pass: 61790 / 68.7% Yes votes ...... 28151 / 31.3% No votes See Also: Index of all Propositions

Arguments For Proposition A

Arguments Against Proposition A

Proposition A Protects Health Care Benefits Owed To City Retirees, While Securing San Francisco's Financial Future Proposition A creates a lockbox to secure the Retiree Health Care Trust Fund (RHCTF) so that money set aside for health care benefits promised to retired city workers cannot be raided by the City for other purposes. Proposition A protects the Health Care Trust Fund to ensure San Francisco can meet its commitment to provide health care for retired workers including firefighters, police officers and nurses who made sacrifices to protect our community. San Francisco made a commitment + these retired workers are depending on that commitment. To honor our commitment to San Francisco's retirees: Proposition A prevents the City from raiding the Retiree Health Care Trust Fund for uses other than paying retiree health care benefits. Proposition A eliminates our city's $4.4 billion liability in about 30 years. Proposition A switches from a pay-as-you-go model to a fully funded model to pay for retiree health care costs now and in the future. Proposition A ensures we don't shift costs to future generations. Proposition A will provide major cost savings for San Francisco with fiscal oversight, smarter money management and sound investing. Proposition A is supported by a broad coalition of San Franciscans including San Francisco Firefighters Local 798, San Francisco Police Officers Association, IFPTE Local 21, Municipal Executives Association (MEA), business organizations including the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the San Francisco Council of District Merchants Association, and retiree organizations including Protect Our Benefits. Join us in honoring our commitment to our retirees, vote Yes on Proposition A! Mayor Ed Lee Supervisor John Avalos Supervisor London Breed Supervisor David Campos Supervisor David Chiu Supervisor Malia Cohen Supervisor Mark Farrell Supervisor Jane Kim Supervisor Eric Mar Supervisor Katy Tang Supervisor Scott Wiener Supervisor Norman Yee Rebuttal to Arguments For 5 Facts About A: 1. It's no "lockbox". The city can immediately draw against the trust fund, even though it's underfunded. Currently, the trust fund is off limits until 2020. No more under Proposition A. Withdrawals are allowed if the city's retiree health care costs exceed 10% of payroll, about $130 million. The SF Chronicle notes the city will exceed the target every year for the foreseeable future. 2. It won't protect retiree health care money from misappropriation. RHCTF funds are reserved for retiree health care costs under today's law. Proposition A doesn't change that. 3. It won't close the city's retiree health care deficit, nor protect future generations. Proposition A won't protect taxpayers from rising health care costs, and low withdrawal limits mean the supervisors will mismanage the RHCTF. 4. The savings from A benefit the city's highest-paid employees, like the supervisors. Their health care plans will be off limits for budget cuts, meaning providers can bill city taxpayers excessively. Basic services like police and fire get no such protection. 5. Even the Author of A admits the city leaders backing it want to "raid" retiree health care money. Why should you trust them to protect what they've said they'd rather spend? Proposition A will protect health plans of imminent retirees like the supervisors, but threaten them for later retirees. Surely elementary teachers don't want their students funding their retirement benefits. Please join us in voting NO on A. Libertarian Party of San Francisco

There is a key sentence in this Charter Amendment that isn't mentioned in the ballot summary. It appears twice, once with respect to employees hired on or before January 9, 2009, and once with respect to employees hired after that date. That sentence reads as follows: "In the event that the contribution rates set forth above do not cover the entire Normal Cost, the Employer shall contribute the balance into the RHCTF (Retiree Health Care Trust Fund)." What this means in plain English: If retiree health care costs end up not being fully covered by the 2% or less of their salaries that city employees are required to pay toward those costs, their employer + YOU, the taxpayer + will be required to make up the difference! Even if the city were near bankrupt, with schools closing, roads full of potholes, hospitals falling apart, parks full of trash and weeds, and police and fire protection virtually non-existent, it wouldn't matter. The gold-plated health care plans provided to people who worked for the city decades ago, and their dependents, would still have first claim on your tax dollars if Prop. A passes. There's no trust fund for MUNI maintenance. There's no trust fund for the upkeep of San Francisco parks. There's no trust fund to ensure our streets are properly paved. But well-paid government employees + including the Supervisors who put this measure on the ballot + want to make sure THEY have a trust fund that will take care of them. We say let them share an uncertain future with the rest of us. Vote NO on Prop. A. Libertarian Party of San Francisco P.S. + If a ballot measure is too long, unclear, confusing, or complicated, it's best to vote it down. If you don't understand it, it's irresponsible to pass it. Rebuttal to Arguments Against San Franciscans have voted in recent years to make improvements to our pension and retiree health care systems. We believe that they understand that sound fiscal management is good for our employees and retirees, and good for taxpayers. In 2011, City employees agreed to pay a larger share of their earnings towards their retirement health care. Prop A protects these funds set aside for retiree health care so they don't get depleted. By changing from a pay-as-you-go model to a system where funds are set aside and allowed to grow through investments, the contributions of today's workers will help build funds for their future retirement health care costs. Proposition A will result in major cost savings for San Francisco. While other cities struggle to pay for retiree health care, San Francisco is taking steps to make sure it can fulfill its obligations when the time comes. City workers and retirees, including firefighters and police, as well as businesses, Democrats and Republicans all agree that Prop A is good for employees and retirees, and good for the City's financial future. By voting Yes on Prop A, you can help ensure that we honor our commitment to retirees without passing on years of accumulated health care costs to future generations. Vote YES on Prop A. Mayor Ed Lee (For identification purposes only; author is signing as an individual and not on behalf of an organization.) Supervisor John Avalos Supervisor London Breed Supervisor David Campos Supervisor David Chiu Supervisor Malia Cohen Supervisor Mark Farrell Supervisor Jane Kim Supervisor Eric Mar Supervisor Katy Tang Supervisor Scott Wiener Supervisor Norman Yee