Union officials say they have grown weary of Quinn's efforts to rally business leaders behind his ideas and his use of agency directors and state government resources to argue that basic state government functions will suffer unless something is done about pensions.

The U.S. Census collects key data from selected state and municipal pension funds every year. State Budget Solutions consolidated the data for the 222 largest state administered defined benefit pension funds from fiscal years 2007 through 2010 to present an overview of each state's pension funds.  See how your state is doing.

Gov. Christie's pension reform did little to stop the age-old New Jersey practice of double-dipping, in which employees "retire," start collecting a pension, and then are rehired, often the next day.  A criminal investigation is under way involving his running mate, New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

Recent studies by the U.S. Census Bureau, GAO, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and the Harvard Kennedy School detail the continued deterioration and chance of failure of public pension systems within the overall local and state government fiscal crisis. Read these studies and be aware of the extent of this pressing problem.

The Illinois State Senate approved legislation that would require retired state workers to pick up more of the costs of their health insurance.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel took his case for pension reform directly to rank-and-file members whose contributions he wants to raise and whose retirement benefits he's proposing to cut.

Pension reform is a separate issue from amortization. These two issues have been conflated by those invoking the GASB proviso for closed DB plans, but this has only sown confusion. This is clearly demonstrated when the reform is structured with amortization payments on total payroll. In this way, the growth in the base for amortization payments is unaffected by the reform, so there is no policy reason for changing the schedule of these payments. The funding schedule for amortization is a red herring, irrelevant to the fundamental policy decision for pension reform. Amortization pays for past debts; pension reform lays a path toward a responsible future.

Complicating a complicated situation, the Illinois constitution forbids revoking pension benefits, but health care isn't included, supposedly, so the governor hopes to skirt the constitution by offering retirees a Hobson's choice - accept the new plan with the cuts or keep the old system but lose your health care.

The Kansas Senate on Wednesday approved a $14.4 billion state budget for the next fiscal year after adding money for public schools and property tax relief.

An Illinois Senate committee rejected a measure that would force local government to pick up the tab when it gives an ex-lawmaker a big paycheck to fatten his pension.

Pension reform is a separate issue from amortization. These two issues have been conflated by those invoking the GASB proviso for closed DB plans, but this has only sown confusion. This is clearly demonstrated when the reform is structured with amortization payments on total payroll. In this way, the growth in the base for amortization payments is unaffected by the reform, so there is no policy reason for changing the schedule of these payments. The funding schedule for amortization is a red herring, irrelevant to the fundamental policy decision for pension reform. Amortization pays for past debts; pension reform lays a path toward a responsible future.

This report discusses increases in age and service requirements for normal retirement that state governments enacted from 2009 through 2011. It includes changes in 30 plans for general state employees and teachers in 25 states, and 16 plans for public safety employees in 13 states. In most cases, the changes affect only people hired after the legislation was passed. In a few plans, the changes apply to non-vested members as well.pe

Tables Showing Which States Have Defined Benefit, Defined Contribution and Hybrid Plans for State Employees and Teachers.

This paper investigates the determinants of public pension plan risk-taking behavior using the percentage of total plan assets invested in the equity markets and the pension asset beta as measures of investment risk. We find that government accounting standards strongly affect public fund investment risk, as higher return assumptions (used to discount pension liabilities) are associated with higher equity allocation and beta. Unlike private pension plans, public funds undertake more risk if they are underfunded and have lower investment returns in the previous years, consistent with the risk transfer hypothesis. Furthermore, pension funds in states facing financial constraints allocate more assets to equity and have higher pension asset betas. There also appears to be a herding effect in that a change in CalPERS portfolio beta or equity allocation is mimicked by other pension funds. Finally, the results offer mild support of a public union effect.

The sixth-annual Tennessee Pork Report is chock-full yet again, of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement of taxpayer money by state and local government officials. Despite a changing political landscape in Tennessee, wasteful government spending has not disappeared.

This paper examines the fiscal health of the 50 U.S. states. As this paper shows, accounting for implicit pension liabilities provides a significantly more negative picture than does explicit debt information on its own.

The jig may finally be up for state pension funds. After years of fooling the public and the federal government, academics and the media are starting to take notice of the growing crisis.  But just how big is the problem?  This SBS study reveals the true extent of the crisis.

The intent of this report is not to suggest specific policy solutions; rather it is to enrich the debate over the various dimensions of the Massachusetts public pension system by providing data on pensions across many of those dimensions. Highlighted issues include group classification, retirement year, service years, and income replacement levels.

A compilation of websites presenting research and opinion on Pennsylvania's pension funds.

Ten ideas to cut waste and balance the buget without raising taxes, including more efficient K-12 funding, spending high education tax dollars more wisely and rein in state employee salaries and benefits.

In light of Oregon facing a budget crisis, the Taxpayer Foundation has issued a master list of budget balancing ideas that do not require raising taxes. These ideas have been collected from Oregon lawmakers, think tank groups, taxpayer organizations, unions, policy analysts, Democrats, Republicans and even ideas utilized in states across the nation.

This study focuses on the retiree health plan administered by the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association (PERA). The PERA Health Care Program is a cost sharing multiple-employer plan. The “employers” in this context are the various governments that hire most public employees, such as public school teachers, fire fighters, police officers and state employees. Under this program, PERA subsidizes a portion of the premium for health care coverage, and the retiree pays any remaining amount of that premium. The Colorado legislature created the Health Care Trust Fund in 1999 to provide state subsidies to the Health Care Program.

Establish limited priorities for Oklahoma’s state government. Once limited priorities are set, everything else should be considered according to these priorities. The state currently has hundreds of agencies, boards, and commissions; it’s no wonder there is chronic overspending and regular “revenue shortfalls.”

Article saying Maryland should create a voluntary "buy back" program in which the state would pay cash to public workers who agree to forego some of their pension benefits. If structured correctly, and if many Maryland workers have preferences similar to their Prairie State counterparts, this program could significantly reduce state pension fund liabilities while giving workers the cash they want.

Too many games can be and are being played with public pension systems at the expense of taxpayers. The key to pension reform is to eliminate pension systems over time by converting to a 401(k) retirement benefit.

This Issue Brief lays out policies that state and local governments can enact to reduce and control the cost of employee compensation. These recommendations are heavy on strategies to reduce the cost of employee benefits. Growth in benefit spending has been especially rapid in recent years, and, all things being equal, it is more efficient to pay workers in cash than in benefits.

Compilation of changes governors and legislators will consider to address state retirement issues in 2011.

Case study of New Jersey's five public pension plans and exploration of possible solutions, including shifting all newly hired employees to a defined contribution pension model based upon the plan already offered to New Jersey's university employees and continuing current reforms lowering pension replacement rates and, if possible, extended to current employees.

Opening up the NDPERS's defined-contribution (DC) plan to all workers would have a dramatic impact on the system's bottom line.