MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee County Board Chairman Theo Lipscomb said in a statement Thursday, December 1st the county paid $11 million in lump sum payments in November to retirees and their beneficiaries to correct for underpayments made to employees who retired between 2001 and 2008. Future payouts are expected to cost an additional $6 million, according to Lipscomb.
According to Lipscomb, although a correction was made in 2009 to ensure accurate pension payments, the 2001-2008 underpayments were not addressed until November 2016, which resulted in dramatically larger lump sum payments due to interest costs that accumulated at a rate of 8% annually.
Lipscomb has requested an analysis from the County Comptroller of the additional costs that were incurred as a result of what he says was Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele's failure to act sooner to implement an administrative fix of the problem.
Chairman Lipscomb made the following statement:
The Milwaukee County Board will meet to discuss the issue in committee meetings scheduled for December 2nd and December 8th.
Supervisors on the Personnel Committee and Finance and Audit Committee expect to receive additional explanation about the extent of the errors and delayed response in addressing them, according to Lipscomb's statement.
Below is a statement from Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele's Office: