As part of DPROA’s ongoing effort to keep our pension fight at the forefront and to safeguard our benefits, DPROA President David Elliston is periodically sending informational emails to the Mayor and Dallas City Council members to highlight our concerns and provide information regarding the health of the pension system and its performance. Below is message #6:
Today I would like to continue my series on the impact pension reforms contained in HB3158 have had on retirees. As I previously explained, retirees lost their only protections against inflation when the Benefit Supplement was eliminated and the “guaranteed” Annual Adjustment of 4% was replaced with an Ad Hoc COLA. The Ad Hoc COLA can only be paid after the plan’s financial status has improved to the point where it is 70% funded after awarding the COLA. The latest prospect for the plan to reach this benchmark is October 1, 2063. Think about that for a minute. First Responders still working today will not live long enough to receive a cost-of-living adjustment. This can’t be good for recruiting efforts by our Police and Fire Departments. In fact, during an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Police Chief Eddie Garcia, when discussing the pension, was quoted as saying, “We were in a hole, and we need to get out of it.”
Let’s compare the Dallas Police & Fire Pension with the Employee Retirement Fund and Social Security. Please see the chart below:
| Pension | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Total |
| ERF | 1.4 | 2.1 | 2.7 | 1.64 | 1.35 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 18.8% |
| DP&FP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| SSA | 0.3 | 2.0 | 2.8 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 5.9 | 8.7 | 22.6% |
Note: DP&FP paid its last Annual Adjustment October 1, 2016. Social Security and ERF start their COLA increases January 1 of each year.
While active police and fire members can lobby for pay increases through Meet and Confer, the retirees without an Annual Adjustment, Benefit Supplement or Social Security are seeing their purchasing power diminish greatly. Thank you for taking the time to read my messages. I hope you have found them helpful in understanding the plight of police and fire retirees. I truly appreciate your time and service to our great City. Please reach out if I can ever be a resource to you or your staff.
David Elliston
President
Dallas Police Retired Officers Association