Oct. 1 edition, Pension Issues in the News

OCTOBER 1, 2018

MINNESOTA NEWS + OPINION

Lifetime Achievement Award: Mansco Perry, Minnesota State Retirement System

Chief Investment Officer

Mansco Perry, CIO of the $96 billion Minnesota State Retirement System —who will receive the Lifetime Achievement award at the ninth annual CIO ...

Sen. Rosen named one of MSBA's Outstanding Legislators of 2018

Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus (press release)

The Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA) recently named Sen. ... The bill reforms and stabilizes pension funds. ... “A strong pension system supports public schools and will aid in attracting and retaining quality educators ...

NATIONAL NEWS + OPINION

Why these teachers' retirement plans aren't making the grade

CNBC

Public school teachers may save up to $18,500 annually in a 403(b) plan, plus an ... including a Roth IRA or state government 457(b) retirement plans.

To fix Illinois, learn how to compromise

Chicago Tribune

On the other hand, Illinois Republicans (all three of them) say Illinois needs real public employee pension reform. But both of these ideas require an ...

Colin Kaepernick ad campaign prompts NJ to explore divesting pensions from Nike

NJ.com

The council overseeing New Jersey's $77 billion public worker pension fund will study its investments with Nike at the urging of a member ...

Who's Afraid of a 401(k)?

Yankee Institute (blog)

While the vast majority of retirement plans in the private sector are defined contribution plans, the public sector has been slow to catch up, despite the ...

Will this lawsuit cause Kentucky's state pension fund to collapse?

Lexington Herald Leader

Kentucky's beleaguered $2 billion pension fund for state workers, which has ... Jerry Miller, R-Louisville, co-chairman of the Public Pension Oversight ...

Public pensions are paying higher fees for lower returns, Pew study finds

CNBC

Public pension plans are spending more than $2 billion a year in fees on high-cost, risky investments to boost returns. But those bets haven't been ...

State Public Pension Funds' Investment Practices and Performance: 2016 Data Update

The Pew Charitable Trusts (blog)

State and local public retirement systems held $3.8 trillion in assets in 2016, the most recent year for which comprehensive data are available. With the ...

Pensions Are Shelling Out Billions in Fees -- and It's Not Paying Off

Governing

Public pension plans spend at least $2 billion a year on investment fees to high-priced Wall Street firms to boost their returns. But, according to a new ...

CERS looks at separation from Kentucky Retirement Systems

Kentucky Today

CERS looks at separation from Kentucky Retirement Systems ... Larry Totten. president of Kentucky Public Retirees, was among those expressing ...

6 retired Massachusetts troopers, ensnared in overtime scandal, are receiving pension payments ...

MassLive.com

The amount of money the state retirement board, which handles their pensions, can stop from going out, or even claw back from public employees, ...

South Dakota shows consistently strong returns

Pensions & Investments (blog)

Among the largest 100 U.S. public retirement systems, the South Dakota Investment Council has delivered relatively consistent absolute and relative ...

PERA's latest fix is stronger than the last one, but longer-living retirees, future downturns could still ...

The Colorado Sun

Colorado lawmakers in 2018 set out to fix a $32 billion problem confronting the state's public-pension program, and by all accounts, they appear to ...

The Politics of Public Pension Boards

RealClearPolicy

Most public pension plans are in poor fiscal health. Funding ratios have deteriorated over the past two decades, as the plans accumulated $5.52 ...

The Opportunity Created by California's Overly-Generous Public Pensions

Forbes

Without changes, public employee pensions are not sustainable. But, fully funding these pensions is unfair to taxpayers who will inevitably be asked to ...

With Teachers Watching, Kentucky Court Considers Pensions

U.S. News & World Report

All of Kentucky's public pension systems are significantly underfunded. Actuaries estimate the state is at least $37 billion short of the money needed to ...

Private money managers made about $3.8 billion in profits over 10 years from Pa.'s pension funds

Philly.com

Pennsylvania's main pension funds have less than 60 cents set aside for every dollar of pensions they expect to have to pay when today's public ...

Pensions Are Still Hungry for Long Bonds Even After Tax Deadline

Bloomberg

The analysts also say state and local defined-benefit plans will probably keep adding Treasuries, and they estimate that over the next five years, public ...

Gov. Malloy: Stemerman, GOP Don't Grasp Fiscal Problems

Hartford Courant

Taken as a whole, the changes have led Pew, a non-partisan think-tank that works with public pension systems around the country, to say that the ...

How Public Pension Liabilities Are Becoming Public Threats

Foundation for Economic Education

In most states, people tend to worry about things like education or the economy. In Oregon, public pensions are suddenly at the forefront of political ...

Is Retirement 'Out Of Reach For Working Americans'?

Forbes

That's the claim of a new report by the National Institute for Retirement Security (NIRS), titled, appropriately enough, "Retirement in America: Out of ...

Public funds balance sheet

Pensions & Investments

Better investment returns and funding improvements didn't make much of a dent in funding ratios of public pension plans.

Gap between haves, have-nots is growing

Pensions & Investments

The gap between well-funded and struggling public pension plans grew wider in fiscal 2017, despite higher investment returns and more contributions ...

US equities, alts power strongest returns for plans

Pensions & Investments

Large public pension plans that were more heavily weighted toward U.S. equities than international stocks found themselves seeing double-digit ...

Even people with pensions work into their retirement years

MarketWatch

Transitioning into retirement — the actual act of moving away from the workforce — isn't all that different among public and private sector workers.

'Little to no climate change strategy' at major public pension funds

IPE.com

More than 60% of the world's largest public pension funds have “little or no strategy” on climate change, according to new research. According to the ...

Teacher, Firefighter, Police and Other Retirement Funds Flow Into Sanctioned Russian Companies

Rolling Stone

For years, a river of American wealth has flowed into Russia — money from virtually every corner of the U.S. financial world. Public pensions, hedge ...

California Mandates 2 Largest Pension Funds Factor Climate Risk into Investments

Sustainable Brands

“CalPERS and CalSTRS are seen as national leaders among pension funds, and the kinds of risk that SB 964 requires them to consider are the kinds ...

The 401(k) debacle

Reno News & Review

Before you worry that you didn't have a date on National 401(k) Day, consider this: “Our nation's system of retirement security is imperiled, headed for ...

New Report: Public Pension Boards Are Bad for Pensions; Move to Defined Contribution

Manhattan Institute

In his new report, “The Politics of Public Pension Boards,” DiSalvo points to public pension board members as making fiscally irresponsible decisions ...

Majority of Americans Do Not Feel They Have Recovered from Great Recession

PLANSPONSOR

More than one in four people have stopped saving for retirement or ... While MMI's analysis focuses specifically on public pension funds, an op-ed by ...

Louisiana Teachers chalks up 11.56% fiscal-year return

Pensions & Investments

Louisiana Teachers' Retirement System, Baton Rouge, returned a net ... The pension fund has produced one of the highest returns among public ...

Public pension funds slow to move on climate change risk: study

Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Most of the world's largest public pension funds are providing little or no information about how climate change will affect the ...

Two climate hawks are running for New York attorney general — and the soul of the Democratic Party

Grist

When de Blasio announced his plan to pull funds from the city's five public pensions invested in fossil fuel interests in January, James was right there ...

Political notebook: State's financial outlook continues improvement

Tulsa World

Pension pennies: Oklahoma's $32.9 billion public pension system, once among the most underfunded in the nation, continued a nine-year growth ...

Emerging-Market Tremors Rattle Tennessee's Public Pensions

Wall Street Journal

The rout has exposed the difficulties facing U.S. public pensions, many of which have embraced riskier assets in recent years hoping to boost returns.

Pension Cost and Intergenerational Fairness

Wall Street Journal

Is it fair to one group of taxpayers to pay more than another into the public-pension fund because the market didn't do particularly well that year? I don't ...

Return targets slide, spread out

Pensions & Investments

The distribution of the assumed rates of return used by public pension funds expanded in the five years from 2012 to 2017, according to a recent ...

Virginia Retirement System Returns 7.5%

Chief Investment Officer

The Virginia Retirement System (VRS) returned 7.5% for the fiscal year ... the system is the 20th-largest public or private pension fund in the US, and ...

Pensioners made to prove they are alive

The Express Tribune

Pensioners made to prove they are alive ... “We spend our productive years as public servants with hope to spend old age in peace, but every now ...

NextGen Update - Your Assistance is Needed

Dear Colleagues,  

As discussed in the September Leadership Council Meeting, the ERP Steering Committee and NextGen Project Team are requesting your assistance in moving forward with three key project activities: 

·         Establishing your local Transition Management Team.  If you haven’t done so already, please send your transition management team’s contact information as soon as possible, to Melinda Clark at NextGenERP@MinnState.edu

·         Please distribute and participate in the NextGen Readiness Assessment Survey (more details below).  The survey will remain open through end of day Friday, October 26, 2018.

·         Please encourage participation in the October / November future state regional reviews (more details below).

Don’t Forget!  You and your faculty, staff and students can stay up-to-date with NextGen activities by signing up for Friends of NextGen on the NextGen Site.  

Please review the details below and direct any questions to Melinda Clark at NextGenERP@MinnState.edu.  Thank you for your continued support. 

______________ 

NextGen Readiness Assessment Survey 

Your voice is essential to the future of Minnesota State!  The NextGen Project Team is reaching out to you and your employees to ask for your assistance in completing a Readiness Assessment Survey.  Your role at Minnesota State gives you a unique perspective that will help guide the project as they plan implementation and ongoing communications.

The survey should take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Responses will be anonymous.  Please take the survey HERE, and encourage your faculty and staff to participate.  The survey will remain open through end of day Friday, October 26, 2018.

NOTE!  Students will not be asked to take the survey.  Their input will be gathered through upcoming state-wide student association conferences.

Future State Regional Reviews

Registration is open for future state regional reviews!  The Working Teams, along with our partner CampusWorks, will have future state process maps ready for review by the Minnesota State community (students, faculty and staff) during Future State Regional Reviews from October 8 – November 16.  We’re requesting your assistance in getting the word out. 

Please encourage your students, faculty, and staff to participate in the reviews by:

1. Sharing the LINKED invitation with your teams, student organizations, and local bargaining units.
2. Discussing the regional review process at upcoming leadership meetings, student leadership meetings, and meetings with your local bargaining units.  

To assist you in your discussions, please refer to the below documents which recommend sessions for faculty / staff from

Participation Guidance for Academic and Students Services LINK

Participation Guidance for Finance and Facilities LINK

Participation Guidance for Human Resources / Payroll LINK

Participation Guidance for Information Technology LINK

Registration details and a regional schedule can be found on the invite linked above.

AFT Statement: Public School Underfunding Hurts Vulnerable Students Most

For Immediate Release
September 12, 2018

Contact:
Oriana Korin
202-374-6103
okorin@aft.org
www.aft.org

AFT Statement: Public School Underfunding Hurts Vulnerable Students Most

WASHINGTON—Today, the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS) released a report, “Confronting the Education Debt,” detailing the systemic underfunding of public schools, focusing specifically on black, Latino and low-income students.

The report reflects an America that is increasingly conscious of the need for investment in public schools, following teacher walkouts this past spring and an unprecedented number of educators now running for elected office to make education issues a priority.

According to the report’s findings, Congress has failed students from low-income families, students of color and students with disabilities in particular. The historic underfunding of Title I and IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) has reinforced a separate and unequal education system, leaving a $580 billion funding hole that has shortchanged the futures of our nation’s most vulnerable students. Since 2005, the federal government has shirked its responsibility to help provide services to students with disabilities to the tune of $233 billion. Over that same period of time, the personal net worth of the nation’s 400 wealthiest individuals grew by $1.57 trillion.

At the state and local levels, the report highlights that on average, districts with large populations of students of color received about $1,800 less in per-pupil funding than districts with a majority of white students.

In response to the report, AFT President Randi Weingarten said:

“The last decade of neglect has been devastating for our public schools, but this report confirms that those hurt the hardest are students who are our most vulnerable. Let’s be clear: These are choices that state and federal policymakers have made. In the aftermath of the recession and the multiyear recovery, state after state has opted for tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, rather than funding for students, particularly those who need it most.

“We’ve been complaining about this lack of investment for years, but thanks to the educator walkouts this spring, the consequences of these misplaced priorities—which have harmed our kids, their families and educators—have now become a very public issue.

“Awareness of the impact of austerity is one thing, doing something about it is quite another. That’s why the 2018 elections are so important. We must commit to electing people who will reverse this undermining of our students’ future and instead prioritize sustainable, equitable investment in our public schools. Public education is a critical rung on the ladder of racial and economic justice. That promise must be fulfilled, but it will take electing majorities in statehouses and Congress who will prioritize students over tax cuts for the wealthy.

“Thanks to the work of AROS and the tireless efforts of union teachers across the country, we keep fighting to confront our nation’s education debt and demand the investment our schools need.”

National Teacher Union Leader Stands with LA Members in Strike Vote

For Immediate Release
September 7, 2018

Contact:
Oriana Korin
202-374-6103
okorin@aft.org
www.aft.org

National Teacher Union Leader Stands with LA Members in Strike Vote

WASHINGTON— American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued her full-throated support for the members of United Teachers Los Angeles, who voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike earlier this week:

“In one of the wealthiest cities in the country, students are being crowded into classrooms and schools don’t have enough counselors or nurses to meet their kids’ health and safety needs. The city’s budget is being balanced on the backs of students and teachers, and the members of UTLA have had enough.

“After 17 months of the union negotiating in good faith and making repeated requests for mediation, the district’s refusal to sit down with teachers until late September is an insult to educators and a disservice to every family in the Los Angeles Unified School District. And the proposals the district has offered fail to fund community schools, fail to put accountability measures in place for charter schools, and fail to address the overtesting issues that have left UTLA’s teachers completely out of the discussion on how to assess student performance.

“What’s happened in Los Angeles is what we’ve seen in too many cities around the country: the dismantling of public education through disinvestment and privatization schemes, prompting teachers to take on this fight. We stand with UTLA every step of the way.”

Labor Update - Find Upcoming Labor 2018 Volunteer Opportunities Near You

September 10, 2018 56 days until Election Day – Find Upcoming Labor 2018 Volunteer Opportunities Near You The 'Green Revolution' and its Impact in Southern Minnesota Wind energy is a renewable resource with lucrative possibilities for Southern Minnesota. However, a study from the North Star Policy Institute shows that when wind farm developers don’t hire local workers, the community loses an estimated $30 to $40 million in economic benefits across seven major wind farm projects. Local workers will typically spend 95% of their income in the region where they live, whereas non-local workers typically take most of their earnings back home. Read more at Workday Minnesota. Wisconsin Grows Poorer, More Unequal Relative to Minnesota Minnesota’s median income grew faster than the national average over the past decade. While Minnesota income inequality has increased, it has increased less rapidly than the national average. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, median income growth fell short of the U.S. growth rate and income inequality increased at a faster pace. The divergent trends in the two states coincide with divergent policy directions. Read more from North Star Policy Institute. VIDEO: Reject Brett Kavanaugh Today As Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination hearings get underway, working people are demanding a Supreme Court justice committed to upholding the rights of working families. Unfortunately, Kavanaugh has a long track record of ruling against working people and in favor of greedy corporations. Watch the video and learn more. Economy Gains 201,000 Jobs in August; Unemployment Unchanged at 3.9% The U.S. economy gained 201,000 jobs in August, and unemployment was unchanged at 3.9%, according to figures released last week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wage growth of 2.9% is tepid for this level of unemployment, and with core inflation just at 2%, the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee should continue to pause its plan to raise interest rates. Read more. Upcoming Events Wednesday: Southeast Area Labor Council Meeting Thursday: St. Paul RLF Dakota County Labor Assembly Meeting September 19: St. Paul RLF Retirees Meeting September 20: State Retiree Council Convention September 21-22: Minnesota AFL-CIO Convention September 21: Minnesota AFL-CIO Convention Red Cross Blood Drive September 24: St. Paul RLF Ramsey County Labor Assembly Meeting September 26: St. Paul RLF Washington County Labor Assembly Meeting September 27: St. Paul RLF Chisago County Labor Assembly Check out the full calendar for more events & Labor 2018 volunteer opportunities Visit us at www.mnaflcio.org | Facebook | Twitter Text MN to AFLCIO (235-246) to join our text action team. (Message and data rates may apply.)

AFT Leaders Respond to Detroit Public Schools Drinking Water Problems

For Immediate Release
August 31, 2018

Contact:
Marcus Mrowka
202-531-0689
mmrowka@aft.org
www.aft.org

AFT Leaders Respond to Detroit Public Schools Drinking Water Problems

WASHINGTON—AFT leaders respond to concerns with the drinking water at Detroit public schools.
AFT President Randi Weingarten:

“Every child and every educator should be guaranteed safe drinking water at school. What’s happening in Detroit is the latest illustration of the harm inflicted on children and their teachers through the systemic underinvestment in Detroit public schools by this governor and state leaders. We’re working to get water, coolers and hand sanitizers to the schools, and will continue to do everything we can to work with our locals and the district to ensure our members and the students they serve have safe, reliable drinking water, and that we get the lead and copper out of the water in Detroit schools. We’re glad the superintendent took this action to keep kids and educators safe so that, unlike what happened in Flint, the danger could be addressed before anyone got sick or hurt. But let’s be clear that this wasn’t a random occurrence: It is the direct result of a governor and state leaders who have stripped Detroit public schools of resources and have failed to ensure safe and welcoming public schools for students and educators; the only way to get the investment we desperately need is to elect new leaders in Michigan in November.”

Detroit Federation of Teachers President Ivy Bailey:

“We’re committed to making sure that children and their educators have safe drinking water when school starts next week. While officials of the Detroit Public Schools Community District have taken some steps to address the issue of lead in the water at schools, the community needs assurance that students and staff will be able to function effectively on Tuesday when students arrive. It’s important to note that these issues are a direct result of state-led emergency management.

“We’re glad that Superintendent Vitti has agreed to meet with educators, parents and
stakeholders to address how to get safe drinking water to our schools and get lead out of our
drinking water. We’re ready to work together to keep our educators, students and
community safe.”

Detroit Federation of Teachers Executive Vice President and AFT Vice President Terrence
Martin Sr.:

“Our union could not stand idly by. We have been battling these conditions for years. They
are not new. This is on the state’s hands. We had to ensure that our students and staff have
the supplies they need to perform as best they can under these subpar conditions with a
commitment to get water and hand sanitizer to every school. It was the union that stepped
up to fill that gap.”

Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees President Stephanie Carreker:

“AFT locals in Detroit and our national AFT union are taking a proactive approach to the
water crisis in DPSCD because we do not want be faced with another water crisis liked Flint.”

Detroit Federation of Paraprofessionals President Donna Jackson:

“We do not want to repeat history and be another Flint or Puerto Rico. We need to get safe
drinking water to students and school staff.”