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Can states and localities manage their pension obligations? The answer, according to the Center for Retirement Research, is yes. In a new brief released earlier this month, researchers at CRR assess the true costs of pensions, other post-employment benefits (OPEBs), and…
Tonight is the vice presidential debate for the 2016 campaign. While it certainly lacks the hype of the first presidential debate last week, tonight’s debate should be an opportunity for substantive discussion between two experienced politicians. Both Tim Kaine and…
Earlier this week the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a lengthy article about state and local government obligations to retirees in Wisconsin. Much of the article focused on the costs of retiree health care obligations. The article was generally positive when…
Last night was the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. With just over a month to go, the presidential campaign is as close as it has ever been. We’ve written fairly extensively about Donald Trump and what…
It’s a tough time for Kentucky’s public pensions. According to one recent report, Kentucky has the most poorly funded public pensions in the country. In his budget this year, first-term governor Matt Bevin moved to increase funding for the commonwealth’s…
State and local public pensions generate significant amounts of economic activity nationally each year. In 2014, state and local public pension plans paid $253 billion to 9.6 million retirees and their beneficiaries. These pension benefits helped to support over 3.4…
It turns out the secret to a strong public pension system isn’t a secret at all: fully funding the pension every year is the most important thing cities and states can do to have a strong public pension system. Today…
Every American who works hard and plays by the rules should be able to retire with security and dignity. Defined benefit pensions make that possible. Learn how pensions provide the most secure retirement for millions of working people, in 60…
If you are a regular reader of Defined Benefit, then you already know that we don’t care for defined contribution plans like 401(k)s that have many failings when compared to traditional pensions. One of these failings is that they provide…
Last month on the blog, we talked about Kansas and how harmful right-wing tax policy there had ruined the state’s budget and threatened public pensions and other critical state services. A similar situation is happening in Oklahoma. Just like in…
In 1981, during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, Chile radically reformed its pension system. It changed from a traditional public pension system to a system of mandatory individual retirement accounts. These accounts are privately managed by firms selected by…
Last week the Kinder Institute at Rice University released a report examining the causes of the growth in Houston’s unfunded pension liabilities. The report also proposed several possible changes to reduce the unfunded liability. The report focuses on the combination…