Board of Commissioners Special Meeting

A special meeting of the Houghton County Board of Commissioners was held yesterday to discuss concerns about the approximately $8.8 million of unfunded liabilities that are currently showing up in the retirement plans of the county employees. A representative from the Municipal Employees Retirement System, better known as MERS, was present for the meeting and they claimed that although the fund is 63% unfunded, it is not in trouble based on their assumptions of how their investments should pan out for the next 27 years. However, Board Chair Scott Ala believes the county can’t wait for these assumptions to come true.

Ala says there were two differing views on the issue. While some of the commissioners felt the MERS plan is good enough, others took a more conservative approach to work on the issue now and not leave it on the heads of taxpayers. While many views of current employees were taken into consideration, the board has not come to a solution on the matter and have not set any timetable for future discussions on the issue.