The Patriot Post® · A $4.7 Trillion Pension Calamity

Lawmakers’ failure to implement public pension reform means an additional $600 billion has been added to states’ unfunded liabilities since last year, according to a new analysis by State Budget Solutions. The fiscal burden rose from $4.1 trillion to $4.7 trillion year-over-year. State rankings are different depending on how you construe the data – for example, California tops the list with $754,049,342 in unfunded liabilities, but, as SBS notes, that’s to be expected considering it’s the largest state and therefore contains the largest government in the Union. More alarmingly, Illinois has the lowest funding ratio at 22%, and Alaska has accumulated $40,639 in pension debt per capita (compare that with California at $19,671 and Illinois at $25,740, both of which are still troublingly high). According to SBS: “The ‘bright side’ of the report is still rather gloomy. The most well-funded state is Wisconsin, which still only has a 67% funded ratio. … In per capita terms, Tennessee citizens are in the best shape, though their liability still exceeds $6,500.” Bottom line: Every state has serious work to do, as America’s fiscal troubles go well beyond the federal government. More…