At last month’s pension reform summit (Rethinking Retirement: Solutions to Secure Texas’ Public Pension Plans), experts gathered from around the U.S. to share their insights and experiences dealing with one of the nation’s biggest issues: overpromised and underfunded public pension plans. Watch as our panel of experts discuss how they’re working hard to protect retirees...
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is out with a new report today—Keeping the Promise: Getting Politics Out of Pensions—highlighting a big but little-known problem plaguing pension systems everywhere: political manipulation. An excerpt from the report: Unfortunately, many lawmakers and pension plan officials have other priorities besides doing what is best for workers. They see...
Last month, the Foundation hosted its first-ever full day summit on pension reform: Rethinking Retirement: Solutions to Secure Texas’ Public Pension Plans. And while the day was filled with a number of terrific panels and presentations, one of the event’s best discussions came as panelists delved into the defined benefit vs. defined contribution debate! Don’t miss it!
Last week, I published an opinion piece in the Austin American-Statesman titled: James Quintero: Texas’ $61 billion pension problem. As it turns out, that $61 billion figure is already out-of-date. Texas’ public pension problems no longer total $61 billion, but have instead grown to more than $63 billion according to new figures from the Pension...
Local government debt grew by several billion dollars this year, according to new data from the Texas Bond Review Board (BRB). According to the BRB, local debt service outstanding—or “the amount that is required to cover the repayment of principal and interest on a debt” held by political subdivisions—rose to more than $342 billion in...
Texas’ public employees deserve a safe and secure retirement, but many are instead faced with uncertainty as some of the state’s biggest public retirement systems deal with problems brought on by years of habitual overpromising and underfunding.
Public pension reform should be a high-priority for the next legislature, for both the sake of retirees and taxpayers. Alarming new data shows that Texas’ public retirement systems are not faring well. The Pension Review Board (PRB) is out with a new report, Actuarial Valuations Report for November 2016, pegging public pension debt at more...
In the haste to regulate something they don’t understand, local officials are violating people’s constitutional rights.
Certificates of Obligation, or COs, let local governments issue debt without voter approval. They are supposed to give officials a way to cope with emergencies, like natural disasters; but, as I’ve argued in the past, COs are increasingly used as a way for officials to spend on feel-good projects or things that voters would never...
The city of Amarillo wants voters to approve a big new bond package — but is it really needed or are officials confusing wants with needs?
The growing gap between the pension promises being made and the money on hand to make good on those promises is one of Texas’ most pressing problems, as already evidenced in places like Houston and Dallas. Inaction is quickly becoming a luxury the state doesn’t have.
It’s hard to see how splash pads and waterslides are going to lay a foundation for the future, unless it’s one filled with sky-high debt and taxes.