OMAHA- For over a decade, Omaha diners have been paying a small restaurant tax to help bolster the wavering police and fire pension fund, and the results have helped put the retirement system in a better place. However, despite the success of the tax, Sen. Mark Kolterman, who chairs Nebraska's Retirement Committee, said that Omaha's public safety pension fund would be in better shape if the city had not failed to make millions of dollars in additional payments actuaries recommended to keep the funds on the road to recovery.

According to Sen. Kolterman, the payments the city should have been making over the past four years should have totaled around $16 million. "The reality is they just thumbed their nose at us," said Kolterman. The Senator went on to state that he thinks the city didn't make those pension payments because deferring those costs to the future frees up money that can be spent now.

Bernard in den Bosch, Omaha's Deputy City Attorney, defended the lack of payments by saying the way the city currently handles restaurant tax revenues and its pension obligations has allowed pension programs to be fully funded. "I understand Kolterman's frustration and passion," said in den Bosch, "But that does not mean the system is not making positive progress."

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