Why aren’t government agencies forced to show the long term obligations of pension deals to the public?

http://open.salon.com/blog/richard_rider/2010/08/06/city_of_bell_scandal_continues_to_grow

Why should a city be allowed to pass their obligations to others? It’s obvious that the City of Bell greatly overpaid some of their employees and the pool of cities to which they belong will be forced to pick up the retirement tab.

Now let’s look at the proposed San Diego Sales Tax increase. As Council member DeMaio has pointed out, there is no mention of reform to the benefits of the members of the Council. I must ask, why is that? Real reform should start at the top, and not at the bottom.

Once again, I request that the actuaries get involved and make it a requirement to show the long term requirements of benefits to the public. Only then, I hope, that the public will wake up and see the real costs of these benefit packages.