Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Pensions! As we do most weeks, we have gathered the best stories about pensions and retirement security from the previous week. This is the news you need to know in the fight for a secure retirement.
Here are this week’s top stories:
- Metro’s pensions are not the problem by Fredrick Kunkle: as we detailed in yesterday’s blog post, the pensions of Washington Metro’s employees are under attack by pension critics following the same anti-pension playbook as those in other states. Kunkle concludes his article by posing a very poignant question: “Instead of pointing at Metro workers and asking, ‘Why do they still have pensions?’ we ought to be asking, ‘Why don’t we have them too?’”
- Public employees need to be aware of IPERS by John Brostad: public pensions in Iowa could be threatened by Senate File 45, a piece of legislation that would force all new public employees into a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan. This is the warning of Brostad in The Gazette.
- Local teachers, unions renew vow to ‘Remember in November’ by Jacob Dick: public employees in Kentucky plan to hold state legislators accountable at the ballot box in November after their last-minute passage of a pension-gutting bill this spring. Teachers and other public employees are rallying around the “Remember in November” slogan.
- Treasury: New Jersey’s Pension Fund Outperforms Benchmark with 9.06 percent Return for FY18 by Insider NJ: following the trend of public pension funds in other states earning strong investment returns in recent years, New Jersey announced yesterday that the state’s pension fund earned a 9.06 rate of return for the most recent fiscal year. This surpassed both the benchmark return of 8.65 percent and the 7.5 percent statutory assumed rate of return. “This is certainly welcome news for both the State and local governments, and most importantly, public employees,” said Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio.
Be sure to check back next week for the latest news in the fight for a secure retirement!
