Category: Blog

The City of Boston’s unfunded liability for retiree health insurance, also known as other post employment benefits (OPEB), is $2.26B according to the most recent independent actuarial valuation as of June 30, 2015. This latest figure represents an increase of $121M or 5.6% over the last evaluation as of June 30, 2013. The growth was driven by normal plan activity as well as important assumption and plan changes. The unfunded OPEB liability exceeds Boston’s pension liability of $1.69B. (continued . . .)

The City of Boston sold $140M of General Obligation (GO) bonds and $8.1M of GO refunding bonds on March 8, 2016. The GO bonds sold competitively at a True Interest Cost (TIC) of 2.26%, an improvement over the TIC of 2.68% in 2015. The City received eight bids and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. was the successful bidder. For the $140M in principal issued, the City will pay $51.7M in interest costs over 20 years. (continued . . .)

At its meeting on February 11th, the City Council began the process that could lead to the voters of Boston deciding whether to adopt the Community Preservation Act (CPA) on the November ballot. The order has been sent to the Government Operations Committee chaired by Councilor Michael Flaherty. A majority vote of the City Council is required to place the CPA question on the ballot. The question would propose a 1% surcharge on residential and business tax bills starting in FY18. (continued . . .)