Monday, February 22, 2010

States short $1 trillion to fund retiree benefits

By Tami Luhby

States and localities are now facing a $1 trillion deficit in public employees' retirement benefit funds. This comes out to an $8,800 deficit per household. This started when states failed to make annual contributions while also increasing benefits. This new finding doesn't even take into account the economic struggles we had in 2008; the average pension plan fell 25% in 2008. This comes at a bad time for the states, as they are dealing with a $180 billion budget gap for fiscal policy in 2011.

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