Free Republic

Unfunded state pension liabilities have climbed to $8.28 trillion, or nearly $25,000 for every person in the United States, according to a new report from the American Legislative Exchange Council.The American Legislative Exchange Council released the latest edition of its report on pensions in all 50 states Thursday. The report, "Unaccountable and Unaffordable 2021," shows just a handful of states with outsize pension liabilities account for a large share of overall pension debt in the U.S.The report looked at 290 state-administered government pension plans and their assets and liabilities from fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2020. An example of...

State Government: Illinois' new sheriff can be forgiven if he's feeling as underappreciated as the marshal Gary Cooper played in "High Noon." Let's hope his movie ends as happily. Gov. Bruce Rauner is fighting almost single-handedly against an entrenched, corrupt political class of lawyers, lobbyists, social service providers, media and teachers unions whose rallying cry is to smother reform and maintain business as usual in Springfield...... Years of overspending have many state and city of Chicago bonds selling at junk status. Illinois is now called "the deadbeat state" because it's two to three months behind in paying billions of dollars...

Tax Reform: A new report finds several states that helped elect President Obama are doing something he won't — implementing pro-growth tax policies to get their economies moving. Is the White House paying attention? You wouldn't expect a solidly blue state like Maryland — which hasn't voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Reagan — to be cutting taxes for the rich. But in their last legislative session, Maryland lawmakers passed a plan to raise the estate tax exemption almost fivefold over the next five years, according to the latest annual "Rich States, Poor States" report from the American Legislative...

Retired Connecticut state employees received the highest annual pensions in the country in 2011, despite contributing less out of their paychecks than the national average. That meant the state's pension system was the second-most underfunded in the United States, in worse shape than every other state's except Illinois'. Connecticut would have to allocate about $70 million in additional funds each year for 18 years to close the funding gap in the major state employees' pension system, according to actuarial estimates. And that wouldn't address the $11 billion gap in the teachers' retirement system, which would need tens of millions of...

Gov. Chris Christie has warned potential investors there is no guarantee the state will make its required pension payments in future years, an admission that underscores a looming financial crisis he and future governors face as retirement costs are expected to explode before the decade ends. The disclosure, buried in a 156-page bond prospectus for investors, also casts doubt on one of the key commitments Christie and leading Democrats made to public employees as part of the 2011 health and pension reform: Workers would shoulder a greater share of pension costs in exchange for the state making required payments to...

Several years after from the financial crisis of 2008, state pension funds continue to languish. According to data released this week by Milliman, Inc. and by the Pew Center on the States, there was a $859 billion gap between the obligations of the countryÂ’s 100 largest public pension plans and the funding of these pensions. Most of these are state funds, and state legislatures have attempted to respond to this growing crisis by making numerous reforms to try to combat this growing deficit.Read: Nine States with Sinking PensionsIn 2010, only WisconsinÂ’s pension funds were fully funded. Nine states, meanwhile, were...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Retired social worker Jim Gillis was told his $36,000 Rhode Island state pension would increase by $1,100 next year to keep up with inflation. But lawmakers suspended annual increases, leaving Gillis wondering how he'll pay medical bills and whether he'd been betrayed by his former employer. "When you're working, you're told you'll get certain things, and you retire believing that to be the case," Gillis said. He and other retirees are challenging the pension changes in a court battle that's likely to have national implications as other states follow Rhode Island's lead. Cities and states around...

Congress may confiscate every state pension fund into the bankrupt social security system. Indications that this strategy is being discussed in Washington have come in to us from several sources over the last few days. Tonight, a correspondent who has just come home from a Tea Party Townhall Meeting in Salado, Texas with US Representative John Carter (R-Round Rock) issued the warning. She said, "Representative Carter informed the crowd that talk has been bandied about Congress to appropriate every state's pension plans into the bankrupt Social Security System." She is absolutely 100% sure that she understood him correctly. Dear readers,...

A coalition of large US state pension funds has backed the private equity industry’s opposition to new rules on takeovers of troubled lenders, saying the plan would have a “chilling effect” on attempts to revive the country’s banking system. The warning by funds from states including New York, New Jersey and Oregon, which manage billions of dollars on behalf of public workers and are big investors in private equity, will strengthen the buy-out industry’s lobbying against the proposed measures. Under the planned rules, unveiled by regulators last month, private equity groups that buy a troubled bank would have to maintain...

It's a problem that's vexing public pension funds across the nation, and Louisiana is no different. Companies with ties to terrorist-sponsoring countries are popping up in the investment portfolios of the funds that manage the government sector's retirement accounts. The question is whether divesting, or dumping, the irksome investments is the potion for the problem. The debate took center stage Monday at a meeting of the House Committee on Retirement. A representative from a national think tank fueled the discussion with impassioned talk about terrorists using American dollars to wreak havoc on the nation. State pension fund officials agreed with...

Government workers and their unions say that scrapping traditional public pensions, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed last week, would make it hard for the state to hire and keep qualified workers. It would rewrite the long-standing deal in which government workers trade better pay for more secure retirement, they say. Backers of the overhaul disagree, saying government workers now approach pay parity with the private sector. New 401(k)-style accounts will let workers change jobs without giving up retirement benefits, they say, encouraging a healthy rate of turnover. The reality is more complicated than either side depicts. Take the issue of...