Minnesota's public pensions: A worse-case scenario

Mark Haveman:

This is the status of Minnesota's public pension fund obligation. And it may be optimistic.

You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going," Yogi Berra once famously said. "Because you might not get there."

Berra's characteristically unique advice is worth keeping in mind for anyone addressing the issue of public pensions.

Lots of uncertainty, to say the least, comes into play in guaranteeing lifetime retirement incomes for hundreds of thousands of Minnesota public employees -- past, present and future. And wherever we do arrive in this effort will have profound implications for government employees and taxpayers, and for the future of public services in our state.

According to the latest data on the condition of Minnesota's public pension funds, the bleeding has stopped but there is still considerable work to do.

As of last summer, the three major statewide pension plans that provide pensions for the bulk of Minnesota's public employees -- the Minnesota State Retirement System for state workers, the Public Employees Retirement Association for local workers and the Teachers Retirement Association for teachers -- were, altogether, $10.5 billion short of meeting their long-term obligations.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at January 24, 2012 2:06 AM
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