Norris: West Monroe doing well despite challenging times
by Zach Parker - posted Thursday, February 7th, 2013 @ 12:10 pm

Although West Monroe is making progress economically, pension costs are eating into the city's bottom line, according to Mayor Dave Norris.

Norris delivered his annual state of the city address hosted by the West Monroe-West Ouachita Chamber of Commerce at the West Monroe Convention Center last week.

He said the chief problem confronting the city involved the increasing costs of pension plans in the Louisiana State Police Retirement System. Norris cited a $425,000 surplus for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, which contributed to the city's $6.5 million fund balance.

"The city has to deal with the rising cost of pensions that have already taken money out of the city's surplus," Norris said. "Without the increase in pension costs, we would have had over $1 million in surplus last year."
.....