State Forfeiture Laws Affecting Pensions
Last Friday, April 6, Maine joined 20-plus other states that have pension forfeiture laws for convicted public employees. Forfeiture is the loss of property or money because of a breach of a law.
As is the case with most pension plan components, the laws reflect a wide range of differences. Read more 
Response to a “Worse-Case” Pension Scenario with an Accurate One in Minnesota
The Minneapolis Star Tribune recently ran two editorials giving a point / counterpoint on the state’s public pension system.
On one side is the Mark Haveman, executive director of the Minnesota Taxpayers Association, challenging the state pension plans’ investment return assumptions and the plans’ overall sustainability. Mr. Haveman writes:
While public pensions lack certainty, there’s no shortage of risk. Risk to public services, when pensions need more government resources. Risk to future taxpayers, as courts have consistently ruled that benefits promised under these plans must be paid. Risk to current public employees, as higher contributions eat into take-home pay even as the long-term sustainability of today’s benefit levels becomes more doubtful.
On the other side are the board chairs of the three statewide systems: Thomas Marshall, Mary Benner, and Martha Lee Zins. Following is their response in its entirety, re-printed with permission from the authors.
State Hybrid Retirement Plans
Two things about hybrid retirement plans: they are not a new idea; some have been in place for decades. And two, only offering employees a 401(k)-type plan does not meet some retirement security, human resource, or fiscal needs. Read more
Attacks Without the Facts in Missouri
On August 16, 2011, Taxpayers United of America (TUA) brought its message of shame and doom out of Illinois and Wisconsin and into Missouri. The St. Louis Post Dispatch was on hand to hear what they had to say, but the article does not mention if any others were.
The article also does not mention how TUA substantiated its claims such as: “If the system stays the way it is, it will collapse.” Mind you, one of the systems highlighted – the Missouri State Employees’ Retirement System (MOSERS) – gets the majority of its funding (60 percent) from better than average long-term investment returns.
Nor does the article mention Read more
A Macro View of Public Pension Assets
We’ve all heard the comment: public pension unfunded liabilities represent a “trillion dollar gap” and growing.
That unfounded statement considers the grand total of every system’s liability even though the actual liabilities vary dramatically due to multiple factors.
So while neither do assets all fall into one big pot, what do you get if you were to lump them together? Read more
