Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District came into being 14 years ago when four small fire departments serving farms and small towns east of Modesto merged.
The district now flirts with insolvency, a case study in how rapidly growing costs for pensions and other employee benefits are clobbering local governments.
Four years ago, Stanislaus Consolidated had 80 employees, most of them firefighters, and more than $13 million in revenues. However, as budget documents reveal, its expenses, mostly for salaries, were already beginning to outstrip income.
The district’s operational shortfall in 2015-16 was exacerbated by a new expense item, an extra $330,858 bite by the California Public Employees Retirement System, which is anxiously trying to offset its $100 billion in investment losses during the Great Recession and prevent its enormous “unfunded actuarial liability” (UAL) from growing.
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