Mayor Walsh’s recommended General Fund operating budget for FY17 totals $2.97B, an increase of $114.8M or 4.0% over the prior year. Of the revenue growth, 93% comes from the City’s own revenue sources. Click here to read more about the proposed budget
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 . . .)
In 2015, the City of Boston paid $30M to city employees for accumulated vacation, sick and personal days not used. These payouts are not usually publicly noted and are hidden when describing employee costs only in terms of annual salary. (read more. . .)
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 . . .)