Back to the Future (Taxpayers)

This Thursday, representatives of the Missouri State Employees Retirement System (MOSERS) and the Public School Retirement System (PSRS) will meet to decide whether or not to lower expected pension investment return rates. In the past they have assumed a long-term return rate of 8% on pension investments, but due to current underperforming investments, the systems are being forced to reassess that assumption. 

For those unfamiliar with how public pensions work, these meetings may not seem particularly noteworthy, but the decisions made by MOSERS and PSRS will ultimately have a significant impact on taxpayers across the state. Overestimating the rate of return will result in lower initial payments into funds, higher total unfunded liabilities, and higher tax burdens down the road. A lower assumed return requires higher initial payments, but it helps ensure pensioners and taxpayers alike that the pensions can be funded solely out of those payments in the future.

Missouri Treasurer Clint Zweifel hopes to lower the current 8% assumption MOSERS uses to 7.4% this year and drop it to 7% over the next four years.  He predicts that the lower rate would cost Missouri taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, but states “This is the fiscally responsible thing to do, not only for the fund and for its beneficiaries but also for taxpayers in the state.” In the past the Show-Me Institute has written about how pension discount rates should be evaluated in a more realistic manner in order to reduce unwanted future risks.

And we are by no means on the ideological fringe on this question.  In 2014, the University of Chicago’s Business School surveyed professional economists and found that 96% agreed that assuming higher rates of return understates pension liabilities and the costs of providing pensions to public sector workers. That finding underscores the importance of these pension meetings.

Of course, one way to avoid burdening taxpayers with future pension liabilities, which we've also talked about, is to explore defined-contribution plans that consist of employer/employee contributions and investment gains as the final payout. In a defined-contribution plan, taxpayers won’t be held accountable when a retirement plan is underfunded because, by definition, the plan cannot incur liabilities.

But to be clear, pension liabilities are legally binding, so if the state is going to have defined-benefit pensions, it only makes sense that those pensions should be managed in a way that guarantees that employee pensions can be paid. 

A truly fully funded pension plan would ensure that unfunded liabilities do not rise and that pensions are sufficiently funded today rather than shifting the burden to future generations. Let's hope MOSERS and PSRS seize the opportunity to protect pensioners and taxpayers.