Pinal County may pay unfunded pensions with bonds
by Mark Cowling | Casa Grande Disptach
Pinal County is almost $75 million short in covering its public safety pensions, which the Board of Supervisors will consider financing with a bond issue.
This would save the county approximately $40 million “in present-value dollars,” financial adviser Mark Reader told the board. It would also result in debt service payments of about $5.8 million a year through 2038, instead of rising payments that would eventually top out at $16 million in 2038 before falling, he said.
Assistant County Manager Leo Lew told the board that handling this unfunded liability now will avoid difficult decisions “for those who come after us” in Pinal County government.
