Atlanta pension peril is dire and getting worse

That’s what you wanted to hear to start out your week, right?

Unfortunately, it also seems to be true. A two-hour PowerPoint presentation (PDF) Monday morning by former AJC publisher John Mellott to the city’s new Pension Review Panel drove home the reality that Atlanta’s pension situation is worsening — and will continue to do so unless dramatic action is taken.

Frankly, from what I saw, there’s only one way out and it’s a heavy lift, one that would require almost miraculous cooperation by state lawmakers, city council members and city employees themselves.

What we learned is that the city has only funded about 50 percent of its future pension obligations, creating a monstrous — and growing — unfunded liability. This is a little like having an interest-only mortgage: You can make all your monthly payments, but never end up chipping away at your loan principal.

We also learned that, despite taking several actions that made matters worse, the Council isn’t solely to blame for the city’s predicament. You may recall that, back in 2001, the city sweetened its pension offerings in an effort to curb attrition among police officers — then came back later and improved pension packages for all employees for the sake of fairness. Also for fairness’ sake, these changes were made retroactive so former employees didn’t feel cheated.