Search * unfunded pension liabilities* for your state. This is a huge problem nation-wide.
By law, a teachers retirement is funded by their after taxes contributions in CT. Then these retirement payouts are taxed again by the state income tax.
State fund administrators are supposed to invest the monies to sustain the system.
In CT: **As of its last biennial actuarial evaluation in 2012, Connecticut had $9.7 billion in assets and $23 billion in liabilities in its State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS), meaning that only 42.3 percent of its obligations were funded, and $13.3 billion, or about 58 percent, were unfunded. While an 80 percent funded ratio (20 percent unfunded) is generally considered healthy, Connecticut is one of nine states, according to CNBC, that have a ratio of less than 60 percent, and among those nine, it is second from the bottom of the list, just behind Illinois.**
This is why it was brilliant for the Post Office to pay pensions for 75 years the day a new employee starts. After all said and done, the post office will be the only department standing after America goes bankrupt. I know some think funding future pensions is dumb but I think it is brilliant. I think if companies and government agencies had to do this starting in the 1950’s, we’d be a better country. Now everything is screwed and we are heading towards bankruptcy if not worse.