Excerpts from Fox2now.com:
East St. Louis firefighters are battling … how to protect the fire pension fund.
In East St. Louis some 100 firefighters and the families of deceased firefighters are in fear that the pension funds will soon dry up. That’s because the city has failed to pay into the fund this year and last year, skipping $2.5 million dollar that should have been paid.
Right now retired firefighters are getting paid from the firefighters reserve fund.
Late last year the firefighters filed a lawsuit against the financially strapped city asking a judge to force the city to pay into the firefighter’s pension fund. The board that runs the fund says the monthly payout is $280,000, and if the city doesn’t begin paying into the fund the reserve could be gone in 30 months.
A lawsuit against the city has also been filed by the police pension fund.
