State & Local Pensions
The brief’s key findings are: Introduction State and local government workers have traditionally had defined benefit (DB) pensions that insulate them from the stock market and ensure that they do not outlive their savings. Funding these plans, however, has become burdensome for many governments, with costs rising dramatically in the immediate wake of the 2008 financial crisis…
The projected funded ratio for state and local pension plans in FY 2025 is 77.7 percent, 1.5 percentage points higher than 2023 – the date of our last funding update. These gains seem quite modest, given that the S&P index increased more than 40 percent between June 2023 and June 2025…
