The $300 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers), America's largest public pension fund, is eliminating its $4 billion stake hedge funds due to their "complexity, cost, and the lack of ability to scale," the fund's interim chief investment officer has just announced. But the the $180 billion New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS), the nation's second largest public pension fund, is poised to move in the opposite direction. Read More
Public employee unions, naturally, are staunch defenders of the old-fashioned defined benefit plans. But as E.J. McMahon noted in 2012 testimony before a joint legislative fiscal committee: "The current public pension system in New York, as in most other states, exposes taxpayers to intolerable levels of financial risk and volatility." Read More
The state's general pension fund was recently valued at a record $180.7 billion. Some, though, cautioned about future costs. "The state pension system remains a ticking time bomb," the Empire Center's E.J. McMahon wrote in his group's blog, NY Torch. Read More
E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center, a fiscally conservative think tank, criticized the new law, particularly since it allows union officials to earn pensions through both systems at the same time. Read More
E.J. McMahon joined Fred Dicker to discuss New York's public-sector pension funds. Read More
Massive but partially hidden funding shortfalls are a feature, not a bug, of New York City's public pension system and its counterparts across the country. Read More
"All of this points back to the unsustainability of the state's pension system," said Tim Hoefer, executive director of the Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany-based think tank. Read More
“I think a lot of people might be surprised to the extent with which this happens around the state,” said E.J. McMahon, president of Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany think tank. “You can actually bolster your pension with time spent working in uniform on private time.” Read More