The year 2008 may be fading in our collective memories, but its effects on public pension plans linger, and retirement systems and their plan sponsors continue to assess and respond to its consequences. These responses generally revolve around efforts to address higher pension costs needed to amortize higher unfunded liabilities resulting from the market decline. However, other factors are driving the need for changes at many plans, especially a) chronic failure by some plan sponsors to make required contributions, and b) approval of benefit levels that plan sponsors either would not or could not pay for.

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) on March 2, 2010 published an updated report to Congress titled State and Local Governments' Fiscal Outlook. In summary it states: Fiscal sustainability presents a national challenge shared by all levels of government. Since 2007, GAO has published longterm fiscal simulations for the state and local government sector. These simulations show that, like the federal government, the state and local government sector faces persistent and long-term fiscal pressures. Using the Bureau of Economic Analysis's National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) as the primary data source, GAO's model projects the level of receipts and expenditures for the sector until 2060 based on current and historical spending and revenue patterns.

Since 2007, investment losses and the weakness of state and local government revenues have produced extraordinary stress for public retirement funds in the United States. This stress magnified the funding issues retirement funds encountered because of the recession at the turn of the century.

The vast financial losses and uncertainty during the last year have forced all generations to reassess the funding, timing, and purpose of retirement. At this pivotal moment, Age Wave launched Retirement at the Tipping Point: The Year That Changed Everything™, a landmark national study conducted by leading research firm Harris Interactive.

The Public Fund Survey is an online compendium of key characteristics of the nation's largest public retirement systems and is sponsored by the National Association of State Retirement Administrators and the National Council on Teacher Retirement for the purpose of increasing knowledge and understanding of the public pension community.

Social Security Administration  in mid-October 2009 released a bulletin entitled "The Disappearing Defined Benefit Pension and Its Potential Impact on the Retirement Incomes of Baby Boomers." The percentage of workers covered by a traditional annuity, often based on years of service and final salary, has been steadily declining over the past 25 years.

The National Institute on Retirement Security on July 30, 2009, released a new study titled, The Pension Factor: Assessing the Role of Defined Benefit Plans in Reducing Elder Hardships.

The report finds defined benefit pensions, such as our own Washington State LEOFF 1 and LEOFF 2 retirement plans, besides being good for the members and their family, are a benefit to the community in general.

The National Institute on Retirement Security  published a February 2009 fact sheet based on 2006 information, which is the latest data compiled.

Expenditures made by retirees of state and local government provide a steady economic stimulus to Washington communities and the state economy. In 2006, 129,378 residents of Washington received a total of $2.35 billion in pension benefits from state and local pension plans, with $2.17 billion paid from plans within the state and the remainder originating from plans in other states.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change in prices over time of goods and services purchased by households.  This article gives a very general overview.  Much more data can be found on the BLS site.

The Center for State and Local Government Excellence has issued its first issue brief on retiree health benefits, “The Crisis in State and Local Government Retiree Health Benefit Plans: Myths and Realities.” The brief, written by Robert L. Clark, examines the current financial status of state retiree health plans.