Council wants a hearing on raising the pension COLA base for city retirees
Retirees' annual raise is figured on a $15,000 base unchanged since 2021, worth $450 a year at 3%. The city's finance chief told councilors in May that raising the base would add $90 million to the pension liability.
Retired Boston city workers get a yearly cost-of-living adjustment on their pensions, but it is figured on only the first $15,000 of a pension. On Oct. 21 the City Council sent to committee an order for a hearing on raising that base, filed by City Councilor Ed Flynn (docket 1963).
The issue matters to thousands of retired teachers, firefighters, plow drivers and clerks, and to every taxpayer, because the city funds the pension system.
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How the COLA works
The Boston Globe reported in June 2025 that the Boston Retirement Board unanimously approved a 3% adjustment for that year but voted 3-2 against raising the base to $18,000, $17,000 or $16,000, with the board's two elected members voting for the increases. The base went from $14,000 to $15,000 in 2021, the Globe reported. At 3%, a $15,000 base means a raise of $450 a year.
The state sets a default rate each year and lets local boards go up to 3% after notice to the city, according to a state memo attached to the Boston Retirement System's fiscal 2027 COLA notice.
What Flynn said
Flynn told colleagues that retirees have not had a COLA base increase since 2021 and receive an annual increase of only $450, which he said has not kept pace with living costs (watch at 1:30:40). He said the board continues to deny a base increase despite the council's support, and that he wants retirees and the board to testify before the board's fiscal 2028 decision (1:31:42).
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City Councilor Julia Mejia, added as a co-sponsor, said retirees deserve to age in place with a pension that reflects their needs and thanked the Boston Teachers Union for its advocacy (1:32:12). City Councilor Erin Murphy, the third co-sponsor, said she has gone to the retirement board every year to argue for a higher base and it has not passed (1:33:12).
What the city's finance chief said
At a May 27 Ways and Means hearing, Flynn asked whether the city would support the retirees. The city's chief financial officer, Ashley Groffenberger, said the request was to raise the base by $3,000, which would add $90 million to the pension system's unfunded liability (May 27 hearing, 1:38:28). She said the city is still on a schedule to fully fund the system by 2028, and that absorbing the new liability on that schedule would mean about $45 million more in the operating budget in fiscal 2027 and 2028 (1:40:01). She said the city has supported 3% adjustments and voluntarily went to 5% in one recent year (1:39:30).
What our records show
The council has taken this position before. On May 20 it adopted Flynn's resolution supporting a 3% COLA and a higher base (docket 1066). The vote was 11 yes, with Sharon Durkan not present and Gabriela Coletta Zapata absent. A resolution states the council's view; the retirement board makes the decision.
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The new hearing order lists 12 sponsors in the council's record; Durkan is not listed. It went to the Ways and Means Committee, which Benjamin Jacob Weber chairs.
What's next
No hearing date has been set. Under the state timeline, the retirement board's next COLA decision, for fiscal 2028, is due by the end of June 2027. Watch the meetings page for the hearing notice.