(Bloomberg) -- Dallas’s police and firefighters are quitting indroves, wagering that financial-market losses are about to rendertheir promised pensions too good to betrue.

With the city considering benefit cuts to help close aretirement-fund shortfall that grew by$1.2 billion last year, more than 200 workers have decided toretire or leave, about double the normal rate, said Mayor Pro TemErik Wilson, who sits on the Dallas Police and Fire PensionSystem’s board. That’s threatening to put further pressure on thefund as benefits come due, including lump-sum payouts to olderemployees who’ve been drawing a paycheck while earning a guaranteed8 percent return on their pensions.

“I’ve had 40 to 50 officers in my office this week asking whatthey should do,” said James Parnell, 52, secretary-treasurer of theDallas Police Association and 25-year veteran. “They’re verynervous about what is going to happen, they’re fearing a run on themoney.”

Turmoil in world stock markets and near record-low bond yieldsare taking a toll on pensions for cities like Dallas, which counton annual investment returns of more than 7 percent to coverpromised benefits. In the year through June, U.S. state andlocal-government plans posted the smallest gains since 2009,leaving them with almost $2 trillion less than they will eventuallyneed, according to data from the Wilshire Trust UniverseComparison Service and the Federal Reserve.

The squeeze on Dallas’s fund is even more acute because of adecision to divert money from stocks and bonds into Hawaiianvillas, Uruguayan timber and undeveloped land in Arizona, amongother non-traditional investments. The strategy, put in place underprior managers, backfired. The fund lost 12.6 percent in 2015 and0.7 percent over the past three years.

That’s left the city under pressure to boost contributions orfind ways to reduce benefits to make up for the gap. In November,S&P Global Ratings downgraded Dallas’s bonds by one step to AA,the third highest grade, citing the need to address the risingliability to the 9,600-member fund. Mayor Mike Rawlings hasproposed putting off a voter referendum on an $800 million bondsale for infrastructure projects until the city comes up with afix.

On Monday, dozens of city employees and retirees packed into ameeting where officials discussed options for dealing with apossible liquidity crisis brought on by the increase inretirements.

The public-safety system has just 45 percent of the assets itneeds to cover benefits, down from 64 percent at the end of 2014and half what it was a decade ago. The pension could be out of cashin 15 years at the current rate of projected expenditures,according to a Segal Consulting report in July.

City and pension officials are planing to inject more taxpayermoney into the pension and may roll back some benefits, includingannual cost of living increases and the program that allows workersto rack up lump-sum payouts for staying on the job after they’reeligible to retire.

Such talk has accelerated withdrawals from the fund, which haspaid $220 million since it proposed changes to the deferred paymentprogram on Aug. 11, with an additional $82 million requestedthrough Sept. 21, the board said after its meeting Sept. 26.

“Everyone is going to have to give something for this to besuccessful,” said Wilson, the mayor pro tem. “We’re activelyworking to make sure the pension survives. We’re exhausting everyoption.”

Officials don’t know if making changes to the deferredcompensation plan “will be enough to keep it solvent” because the“program isn’t sustainable,” said Dallas City Councilwoman JenniferStaubach Gates, who also is a member of the pension board.

“We’re trying to address some really alarming numbers,” saidGates.

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