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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The city&#8217;s minimum annual payment toward its pension plan funds will increase by approximately $3.5 million for 2017.</p><p>The announcement came Thursday evening in a news release from Mayor Tony George&#8217;s office. In 2016, the Minimum Municipal Obligation &#8212; commonly refereed to as the MMO &#8212; was $4,645,186. In 2017, it will be $8,121,482.</p><p>According to the release, MMOs are the minimum amount of money &#8212; set by the state &#8212; that a municipality must contribute to its employee&#8217;s pension plans.</p><p>In addition, the city&#8217;s annual debt service will rise from $5.2 million in 2016 and 2017 to $7.4 million in 2018. George&#8217;s office said both increases are expected to impact the city&#8217;s budget in 2017.</p><p>&#8220;The shell game is over,&#8221; George said in the news release, as his office criticized the city&#8217;s previous administration in the release, saying it &#8220;failed to sufficiently pay down debt, therefore passing the ever-increasing debt onto George&#8217;s administration.&#8221;</p><p>Former mayor Tom Leighton said increases like this are normal and that George &#8220;should not have been surprised&#8221; by the increase.</p><p>&#8220;This is standard,&#8221; Leighton said. &#8220;It always goes up.&#8221;</p><p>Leighton also said that the MMO deals strictly with pensions, and that it is not affected by city debt.</p><p>&#8220;This has nothing to do with city debt,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Leighton said the MMO goes up due to things such as employee salaries, saying that when a city employee&#8217;s salary goes up, their pension increases and therefore the MMO increases.</p><p>George&#8217;s office did not state how the city will generate the money needed or if the increase will affect taxes. George did not return a message seeking additional comment prior to press deadline Thursday evening.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Leighton </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_Leighton-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Leighton </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_George_Tony_web_mug-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">George </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_George_Tony_web_mug-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>George </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Brigid Edmunds</p><p>bedmunds@civitasmedia.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Brigid Edmunds at (570)-991-6119 or on Twitter @TLNews.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Mayor: Wilkes-Barre’s minimum pension payment to increase by $3.5M in 2017