Need to Know News on Public Pensions

In June, Moody’s Investors Service released an interesting report analyzing the pension funds liabilities of states. If you are a Teacher, Police officer, Fireman or other state employee it would be wise for you to read what the report says about your states’ pension liability.  For instance, the report states that Pennsylvania and Maryland made the list for the bottom ten states of pension funding as a percentage of their respective revenues.  Specifically, Pennsylvania ranks 42nd with pension liabilities being 105% of the state revenues.  Our own state, Maryland, ranks 40th with pension liabilities being 100% of state revenues.

Now most of the information in this report is not new.  We have known for sometime that some states have been facing significant pension liabilities.  But what strikes me as interesting is the quote about the steps states seem to be taking to address these pension liabilities from Timothy Blake, a Moody’s Managing Director, “The largest accumulated liabilities most often reflect management decisions not to fund contributions at levels meeting actuarial guidelines”.

For a link to the report please go to: https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-New-state-adjusted-pension-liabil....

Hopefully this information will help you make smart choices with your money.