BGR Launches Exploration of Public Pensions

OVERVIEW BGR’s report, A Retreat on Pension Reform: City of New Orleans Reverses Steps to Rein in Sharply Rising Pension Costs by Increasing Benefits, analyzes the City’s little-publicized decision last fall to reverse pension benefit reductions intended to address a steady weakening of the pension system’s finances and a steep rise in the public’s costs.

OVERVIEW This report is the latest installment in BGR’s Candidate Q&A Election Series. The new report consolidates and reissues the responses of the newly elected City of New Orleans mayor and councilmembers who completed BGR’s surveys last fall on important issues facing City government. We encourage citizens to revisit the issues by reviewing the BGR […]

Overview For the October 14, 2017 primary elections in New Orleans, BGR provided voters with its 2017 Candidate Q&A Election Series. BGR submitted questions to all mayoral and City Council candidates on public safety, infrastructure and other important public policy issues facing the City of New Orleans government. BGR compiled the answers of the candidates who […]

Overview BGR reviews two property tax propositions on the ballot in New Orleans on December 10, 2016: a tax increase for fire protection services for the City of New Orleans and a tax renewal for the Sewerage & Water Board’s drainage system.

Overview Reducing the Cost of Tomorrow: A Practical Guide to Pension Reform in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany Parishes explores the changes to public pension benefits policymakers can make to reduce the costs and risks associated with the pension plans. The report is the fourth installment in a series of BGR pension reports.

Overview BGR explains and analyzes two tax propositions in New Orleans on April 9, 2016: one for street work and other improvements, and a second for the police and fire departments.

Overview In Sound the Alarm, BGR examines the New Orleans Fire Fighters’ Pension and Relief Fund – which has become a major financial burden for the public – and relevant bills under consideration by the Legislature in 2013.

Overview In The Rising Cost of Yesterday: Metro Area Pension Costs and the Factors that Drive Them, BGR examines 18 defined benefit pension plans available to local government workers in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes (the Plans). The report tallies the costs the Plans impose on local government entities in the three parishes, and […]

Overview In On the Ballot: November 6, 2012, BGR examines three proposed constitutional amendments, two propositions pertaining to multiple parishes in the New Orleans area, a proposed change to the City of New Orleans charter and two local tax propositions. The three constitutional amendments would strengthen gun rights, provide an additional homestead exemption to spouses […]

Overview Understanding Pensions: A Primer on Public Employee Pension Plans is the first in a series of reports on the public pension plans in which local governments in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes participate.

Overview This edition of Now looks at the issue of public pension costs. In the coming months, BGR will release reports digging deeper into public pension costs, with a particular focus on the retirement systems in the New Orleans area. We will examine public pension plans in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes, compare the […]

BGR analyzes 10 State constitutional amendments on the ballot for November 2, 2010. The amendments concern a wide variety of issues, including: Salary increases for elected officials Allocation of State of Louisiana severance taxes Property tax exemption for disabled veterans Limiting tax increases for non-elected taxing authorities Extending the period following a disaster for retaining […]

Overview The Bureau of Governmental Research analyzes four proposed amendments to the State constitution and one proposed amendment to the St. Tammany Parish home rule charter. The report covers amendments that will go before voters on October 20, 2007. Two of the proposed constitutional amendments deal with State supplemental pay for local public safety employees. The […]