Public Employee Pension Systems
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on June 8 revived legislation that would revise public sector pensions in the Keystone State.The measure, Senate Bill 1071, will be back under consideration, reports WTEA, but has not been passed by the chamber as a result of the 157-26 vote. The state...
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The IRS has released the third quarter update to its 2015-2016 Priority Guidance Plan. The update lists projects — including guidance relevant to retirement plans — it had announced at the outset of the period July 1, 2015-June 30, 2016; it also notes progress made during the period Oct. 1, 2015-...
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The Illinois Senate and House of Representatives on May 30 overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner’s (R) veto of a measure allowing Chicago to borrow $843 million to help address its police and firefighter pension fund shortfalls. Rauner had vetoed the bill on May 27. The vote was not close, according to the...
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State and local pension plans, and the struggles many have regarding funding, have generated plenty of attention. Some background information about them helps illustrate the depth and breadth of the problem and brings into sharper relief the importance of state and local government pension plans,...
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Chicago is a massive city — the 3rd largest U.S. city — and has a pension shortfall to match. A recent analysis offers a look at why the figures are what they are. The Illinois Policy Institute (IPI), an independent research and education organization, offers a different take on why the city’s...
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Our 50 states and myriad communities are highly varied in so many ways — and their governments’ spending on pension benefits reflect that diversity. A report by the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA) looks at how those governments spend on the pension plans they provide...
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Last week, the Republican-led Pennsylvania legislature sent Gov. Tom Wolf (D) a budget bill that he refused to sign. But unlike the Republicans’ budget package Wolf historically vetoed last summer, this one automatically became law this week, and won’t include pension or liquor reform. The budget...
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The Illinois Supreme Court has struck down the measure enacted in 2014 to help address the poor financial condition of Chicago’s public pension plan. In Jones v. Municipal Employees' Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago (2016 IL 119618 (March 24, 2016)), the Court said that Public Act 98-641 is...
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The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in its latest quarterly report about U.S. financial accounts, provides information on how state and local government defined benefit and defined contribution funds — 403(b) and 457 funds — fared from a variety of perspectives during the fourth quarter...
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Since January, new state retirement plan bills have poured into state legislatures around the country, some promising opportunity and some threatening confusion or worse for state plan participants. Obviously not every piece of legislation succeeds, but bills that die in one session often re-emerge...
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The Florida legislature has passed a bill that would allow county governments in Florida, with voter approval, to impose a pension liability surtax. Among the jurisdiction this measure would empower if it is enacted is Jacksonville, the largest city in Florida and the entire Southeast, which has...
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State and local governments’ expenditures on their pension plans rose in fiscal year (FY) 2014, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA). The report came in its March 2016 update of “NASRA Issue Brief: State and Local Government Spending on Public Employee...
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 29 allowed cuts to remain in place that the administration of Gov. Chris Christie (R) made to the state’s public employee pension system.According to the Associated Press, the High Court rejected an appeal by public employee unions in the Garden State of a June 9,...
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Eight months without a budget has rendered Keystone State politics tenser than ever. Gov. Tom Wolf (D) is now being sued by two Republican legislators for exceeding his authority and potentially delaying pension reform legislation that could also preserve local 403(b) choice.After Wolf vetoed a...
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Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) on Feb. 16 signed a reform of the Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS) — the state pension system that serves state police and firefighters. The reform is contained in SB 1428 and 1429, which Sen. Debbie Lesko (R-Peoria) introduced. In a press...
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New Jersey’s public employee pension system has long been embroiled in financial difficulties. Challenges to steps the administration of Gov. Chris Christie (R) has taken to address them found their way into the dockets, and now are being bumped upstairs to the state — and federal — Supreme Courts...
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Increased longevity is good news! But for pension plans it’s another story. For them, it creates more stress — it spells greater drain and heightens the likelihood that plans will pay benefits for a longer period. The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Office of the Chief Actuary late in 2015...
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The Obama administration’s final budget wasn’t a complete retread of its prior retirement plan proposals, but there wasn’t much good news for employer-sponsored retirement plans.Small business owners and small business retirement plans were once again targeted by a proposal that would limit the...
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Many state and local pension plans have poor funding ratios in varying degrees of severity. That alone would seem challenge enough, but they also face additional stresses courtesy of a variety of economic factors, according to a recent report. Slowing economic growth worldwide, lower prices for...
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America’s biggest city is not immune from pension woes. A study conducted in 2015 concludes that the retirement system serving New York City, which had assets of $162.9 billion as of June 30, 2015, needs a variety of additional resources. The New York Times reports that the New York City Office of...
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