The Pew Center on the States released a new report showing that in 2010, “the gap between states’ assets and their obligations for public sector retirement benefits was $1.38 trillion, up nearly 9 percent from fiscal year 2009.”
“Though states have enough cash to cover retiree benefits in the short term, many of them—even with strong market returns—will not be able to keep up in the long term without some combination of higher contributions from taxpayers and employees, deep benefit cuts, and, in some cases, changes in how retirement plans are structured and benefits are distributed. Many states have begun to take action on this problem—nearly every state has reduced pension benefits or increased employee contributions in the last three years, but in many cases these have been relatively minor changes.”
