Louisiana’s pension funding gap ’cause for serious concern,’ study says

Facing an estimated $28 billion unfunded liability for its state retirement benefits system, Louisiana’s management of its long-term obligations for pensions and retiree health care is a “cause for serious concern.” That’s according to a new report from the Pew Center on the States called “Widening the Gap,” which uses fiscal 2010 figures to show how the disparity between what states have promised to pay retirees and what they have actually set aside has been steadily increasing across the nation since fiscal 2009. Just 46% of Louisiana’s overall long-term retirement liabilities of $51.4 billion are funded, the study says. And of that, only 56% of its pension benefits are funded, falling far short of the 80% minimum the Government Accountability Office recommends. Only about 16 states met that threshold during 2010, according to the report. For retiree health benefits, Louisiana has none of its $10 billion in liabilities funded. It joins about 15 other states in this respect. Only four states fared worse than Louisiana in the report: Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, and Rhode Island had less than 55% of their pension liabilities funded in 2010. You can access the full report and state-by-state comparisons via the Pew website here; and you can read a full story on how Louisiana fared in the study by The (Monroe) News Star here.