[Summit] Fw: Pandemic aggravates Providence's Pension Shortfall + Mass. Forecast [Covid News no. 78]

Tue Mar 31 13:30:07 UTC 2020

   ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Rhode Map - The Boston Globe <newsletters at bostonglobe.com>To:Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 07:44:02 AM EDTSubject: The coronavirus has been devastating for Providence's pension fund
   Dan McGowan's daily guide to everything happening in the Ocean State.  
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|  March 31, 2020   |   Follow @DanMcGowan on Twitter  |

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|  Happy Tuesday and welcome to Rhode Map, your daily guide to everything happening in the Ocean State. I'm Dan McGowan and I’m overly excited for ESPN’s Michael Jordan documentary. Follow me on Twitter @DanMcGowan or send tips to Dan.McGowan at globe.com.

ICYMI: Rhode Island was up to 408 cases of the coronavirus as of Monday, with four deaths and 41 current hospitalizations. There were 3,187 negative tests, and 1,000 people in self-quarantine. The Department of Health has a helpful guide to the numbers here.

Long before a global pandemic struck, Providence officials had deep concerns about the city’s ailing pension fund.

It’s why Mayor Jorge Elorza tried for years to sell or lease the city’s water supply, and then warned that the city could face bankruptcy in the future once he realized his proposal was not going to come to fruition. As recently as last month, he said he was working on a new set of plans to improve the health of the fund.

Then came the coronavirus, and the economic meltdown that followed.

During a meeting of the city’s investment board last week, officials said the pension fund was down to about $263 million on March 24, after losing 24 percent of its value as the stock market collapsed earlier in the month.

The city’s unfunded liability – the gap between the amount it has to invest and the amount it owes current and future retirees over time - has been pegged at somewhere north of $1 billion.

The good news is the most recent figures came before the market saw a nice rebound, but the city’s investment manager told the board it’s likely the fund is still down about 19 percent for the year so far.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean the city is going broke tomorrow. Providence pays its current retirees about $7 million a month, and the budget for the current fiscal year sends $87 million to the pension fund. The city’s overall budget is $770 million.

But it does mean that city officials have another thing to worry about as they try to tackle the coronavirus.

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|  Rhode Map wants to hear from you. If you've got a scoop or a link to an interesting news story in Rhode Island, e-mail us at RInews at globe.com.   
   - Ed Fitzpatrick reports that Lifespan is placing a “small amount” of employees on temporary furlough because the overall number of patients has dropped despite the coronavirus outbreak.   

   - This is scary: A group of doctors, nurses, and ethicists in Massachusetts write that the public needs to be fully aware that typical medical options may soon not be available to everyone.   

   - What happens now that hair stylists are shut down for the foreseeable future? The Globe’s Christopher Muther searches for answers in this fun piece.   

   - Congratulations to the Globe’s political team on scooping up the Toner Prize for excellence in political reporting. If you haven’t read our “Back to the Battleground” series from last year, take some time and do it today.   

   - Our friends at Providence Monthly have prepared a go-to resource guide to get you through the coronavirus.
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|  Each day, Rhode Map offers a cheat sheet breaking down what's happening in Rhode Island. Have an idea? E-mail us at RInews at globe.com.   
   - Governor Raimondo’s daily press conference is at 1 p.m.   

   - The Newport City Council will meet virtually tonight to discuss the city’s response to the coronavirus.   

   - If you need something to watch this afternoon, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University is hosting a Facebook Live conversation at noon on the current economic impacts of the government response to the coronavirus.   

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|  Thanks for reading. Send comments and suggestions to dan.mcgowan at globe.com, or follow me on Twitter @DanMcGowan. See you this afternoon.

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| Massachusetts' coronavirus peak will likely be in mid-April, some epidemiologists predict |

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| New forecasts for the spread of coronavirus predict that stress on Massachusetts hospitals will peak around April 14, and that by summer the deadly virus will have taken nearly 1,800 lives in the state.

These projections by the University of Washington forecast that COVID-19 will kill more than 80,000 people in the United States by mid-July. At its peak in mid-April, the virus will kill as many as 2,200 Americans a day, the model predicts.

Read the full story. |

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