TEXPERS' 2017 Summer Forum will be held Aug. 13-15 in San Antonio, Texas. Register today: www.texpers.org.

STUDY: EMPLOYERS AREN'T CONTRIBUTING ENOUGH TO PUBLIC PENSIONS

A new report from the Society of Actuaries highlights a major problem public pension systems are facing – most public pensions received inadequate employer contributions.

The report, released this month, examines data from 160 public pension plans in the United States. The report's authors, Lisa Schilling and Patrick Wiese, specifically looked at metrics that compare retirement plan contributions to benchmarks that represent the level needed to pay down unfunded liabilities.

The authors collected the data from 160 state and large city public sector pension plans in the United States between 2006 and 2014 using assets and liabilities reported under Government Accounting Standards Board guidelines.

In each year examined, most of the 160 plans received insufficient employer contributions to maintain their unfunded liabilities. In 2014 alone, according to the report, 72 percent of plans experienced negative amortization, which increased from 65 percent in 2006. 

For 130 public pension plans, total unfunded liabilities increased 150 percent from $400 billion in 2006 to $1 trillion in 2014, and the plans studied were 73 percent funded by the end of 2014. 

Between 2006 and 2014, employer contributions to those same 130 plans increased 76 percent, up to $85 billion in 2014 from $48 billion, and employee contributions increased 30 percent, to $37 billion from $28 billion. Both payroll and prices rose 17 percent. 

According to the Society of Actuaries' report, many plans with negative amortization contributed at least as much as their target contribution. Among the systems analyzed by the group, regulations "for determining employer contributions vary significantly from state to state and may vary from plan to plan within a state," according to the group's report. 

Not every plan was underfunded, however. Three percent of plans in 2014 had a funding surplus and “20 percent of plans received enough employer contributions to fund their shortfall within 30 years without it growing through negative amortization in the meantime,” according to the report. 

Houston Chronicle Publishes Op-ed on the Risk in 401(k)s

Conservatives' 401(k) push is big risk for public-sector employees

By Max Patterson

It used to be that being "conservative" meant being cautious about untested change, preferring tinkering instead of complete overhaul to institutions that developed over time to serve particular public needs.

If the current Texas Legislative session is any guide, that definition no longer applies to self-identified "conservatives" who seek to dismantle traditional retirement plans for police, firefighters and municipal employees. Their push toward 401(k) style plans is a radical approach with unproven benefit.

San Antonio Express News Publishes Op-ed by TEXPERS

The Moving Targets of Pension Fund Opponents

By Max Patterson, For the Express-News

April 30, 2017

Texas Sen. Paul Bettencourt wants the public to believe that statewide retirement systems are in trouble because of low investment returns and that the solution will cause taxpayers to foot the bill. The truth is statewide retirement systems and some local pension systems are underfunded because for years, the state and some cities did not fund the plans they approved.

A Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems, or TEXPERS, survey showed that about 25 percent of our members did not receive their full actuarially required contribution in 2016. Public employers now see this is a problem, but some people still want to blame the investment market.