This October 2011 Pension Research Council paper titled, Public Pension Pressures in the United States, discusses why public pensions have warranted so much interest of late, focusing on their financing status and reform options. One reason is that some in the private sector are experiencing “pension envy” on learning that public pension benefits are often more generous than those paid to private sector employees.

Each year the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds report on the current and projected financial status of the two programs. This message summarizes the 2011 Annual Reports.

The financial conditions of the Social Security and Medicare programs remain challenging. Projected long-run program costs for both Medicare and Social Security are not sustainable under currently scheduled financing, and will require legislative modifications if disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers are to be avoided.

The latest on the Medicare lawsuit can be found at www.thefundforpersonalliberty.org/medicare-lawsuit-update/index.html displaying an article titled, "Federal District Court Judge Rules All Seniors Receiving Social Security Must Participate in Medicare Part A or Forfeit Past and Future Retirement Benefits."

With a March 16, 2011 decision a federal District Court judge [Rosemary Collyer] has dismissed a two-and-a-half year lawsuit charging the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with adopting policies that deny otherwise eligible retirees their rightful Social Security benefits if those retirees choose not to enroll in Medicare. The lawsuit, known as Hall v. Sebelius, was originally filed October 9, 2008.

Three Big Secrets of Happy Retirement Here is a happy statistic: Sixty-eight percent of retirees surveyed said they were highly satisfied with retired life. Another 27 percent said they are fairly satisfied. Overall, the survey found the following three explanations for why some retirees are happier than others:

On January 20, 2011, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities issued “Misunderstandings Regarding State Debt, Pensions, and Retiree Health Costs Create Unnecessary Alarm – Misconceptions Also Divert Attention from Needed Structural Reforms.”

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on December 9, 2010 issued a report describing the economic conditions and budgeting practices that can lead to significant budgetary challenges termed as Fiscal Stress Faced by Local Governments. Next, it reviews the options available to local governments, state governments, and the federal government for addressing such financial difficulty. Last, the report examines two options that local governments very rarely use: defaulting on their debt or filing for bankruptcy.

Medicare is the federal health insurance program created in 1965 for all people age 65 and older, regardless of their income or medical history, and now covers 47 million Americans. Medicare, in conjunction with Social Security, plays a vital role in helping to provide financial security to seniors and younger beneficiaries with disabilities.

A new report from ING confirms that many state and local government workers are experiencing the same retirement pressures that exist today in the private sector.

According to the findings, a majority of these employees (61%) said they were unsure or uncomfortable about their ability to set aside enough for retirement. A significant number (43%) have become less confident about their savings since the market downturn. Yet most, (72%) have not changed the amount they are investing to address these concerns.

The Pew Center on the States who identifies and advances effective solutions to critical issues facing states has published a report titled "The trillion dollar Underfunded State Retirement Systems and the Roads to Reform". According to the report a $1 trillion gap is what exists between the $3.35 trillion in pension, health care and other retirement benefits states have promised their current and retired workers as of fiscal year 2008 and the $2.35 trillion they have on hand to pay for them. In fact, this figure likely underestimates the bill coming due for states' public sector retirement benefit obligations: Because most states assess their retirement plans on June 30, the calculation does not fully reflect severe investment declines in pension funds in the second half of 2008 before the modest recovery in 2009.

A new August 2010 brief from the Center for State and Local Government Excellence finds that the economy has slowed the ability of local governments to address long-term funding of their Retiree Health Care (RHC) obligations.

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.