A report by the Empire Centre for New York State Policy said over the next five years, tax-funded annual contributions to the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System (NYSTRS) will more than quadruple, rising from about $900m to $4.5bn, while contributions to the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS) will more than double, adding $4bn to annual taxpayer costs.
New York City’s budgeted pension costs, which have already increased tenfold – or $5.8bn – in the past decade, will rise by at least 20% more ($1.4bn) in the next three years, according to the city’s financial plan projections.
The report said pension costs would be even higher if New York’s state and local retirement funds were not calculating pension contributions based on permissive government ac-counting standards, which allow them to understate their true liabilities.
While New York’s two state pension systems are officially deemed “fully funded,” it estimates that NYSLRS is $71bn short of what it will need to fund its pension obligations, and that NYSTRS has a funding shortfall of $49bn, based on valuation standards applied to corporate pension funds….
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