And WHEN (not if), the stock market tanks again, all these pension funds will be in chaos once more (some are still)... The analysts are using a number of measures to evaluate the pension fund’s financial health, with the key measure being the gap – or liability – between what the state will potentially owe the retiring school teachers, county workers and state workers and how much money will be in the pension fund in the coming years. Watkins’ report put Florida’s pension liability at $18.7 billion, which is a lot of money but it is dwarfed by amounts owed by other major states. For instance, California is facing a $189 billion liability, Illinois $168 billion and Texas $104 billion. The national median is $12 billion. Florida’s $18.7 billion liability ranked it ninth among the 11 largest states. Other measures also showed Florida was in better shape than most states. Florida had the most favorable ranking among the major states in terms of pension liability represented on a per-capita basis, with $954 in liability per resident. That is well below the national median of $3,010 per resident.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 12:37:17 +0000