PERS

Mississippi’s defined-benefit pension system — which serves most state, county and municipal employees — has $16 billion in unfunded liabilities and is far below an 80 percent funding level, considered the benchmark for a healthy pension fund.

The good news is that they lowered the investment assumption from 8% to 7.75%. The bad news is that they don’t actually expect the fund’s investments to return anywhere close to 7.75%.

Actuaries reported in October that the PERS funding percentage — the share of future obligations covered by current assets — ticked down to 60.4 percent from 61 percent the year before.

Remember that ‘temporary’ tax hike for California schools? Most is now going to public worker retirements. By STEVE MALANGA | www.wsj.com | January 13, 2015 California Gov. Jerry Brown sold a $6 billion tax increase to voters in 2012 by promising that nearly half of the money would go to bolster public schools. Critics argued that much…

“This spells trouble for the millions of baby boomers who are quickly approaching retirement age and expect to collect the pensions promised to them by government officials,” IBD Editorials | Posted 11/19/2014 | news.investors.com State Finances: Voters in the midterm elections gave Republicans control of 31 governorships and 23 state legislatures, the most since 1929. A big reason…

Thanks to some improved returns on its investments, the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi is in better shape, according to the newest financial report, but the news isn’t all rosy. By Steve Wilson  /   October 31, 2014  / www.watchdog.org / Mississippi Watchdog Photo : IRON MONEY: One of Mississippi’s pension system’s investments in 2013…