Dallas (WBAP/KLIF News) – Dallas police and firefighters marched from the Dallas Police Association’s headquarters to City Hall Wednesday as a protest to changes in the city’s pension. Several hundred officers and firefighters made the half mile walk.
“I worked 33 years with the City of Dallas, and they’re threatening to take away our pension,” says retired officer Crista Walker. “I’m looking at going back to work.”
Mayor Mike Rawlings opposes a bill in the Texas legislature that would aim to make the pension solvent. Without action, the pension could run out of money in ten years.
Rawlings says the measure would amount to a “taxpayer bailout” by forcing the city to make minimum contributions to the system each year.
At Dallas City Hall, police and firefighters laid out 700 pairs of shoes and boots to represent the number of people who have quit the two departments over the past 18 months.
“The mayor wants to try to fix the problem with blame,” says Councilman Philip Kingston, who attended the march. “Blame does nothing for anybody’s retirement.”
Rawlings did not respond to demonstrators, but he has said the measure in Austin would have a negative impact on the city’s growth, making the city’s tax rate less competitive than other cities.
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