Let me start by making one point emphatically clear: I do not support changing the benefits that you as city employees and retirees have already earned. In Texas, a deal is a deal, and if I am elected mayor the city will honor the promises it has already made to you.
If we do nothing about pensions, however, we are setting up a very real and deepening financial crisis that will pit future generations of taxpayers and public employees against each other as the bills come due for the promised benefits — and there is no money to pay them. A number of other cities and states are going through this painful process now. We simply cannot allow that to happen to Houston.
Please click on the link and read the whole thing.
An Open Letter to City of Houston Firefighters and Employees Regarding Your Pension Systems