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Max Patterson, the executive director of the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems, offered thoughts on the media presentation of Texas House bill 2434:
“Early media reports about HB 2434, an actuarial soundness bill filed recently by House Pensions Committee Dan Flynn, are using data which could be called into questioned by reports TEXPERS has created the last two years.
“TEXPERS has analyzed amortization period trend data for the 93 systems submitting information to the Pension Review Board and found trends to be improving tremendously over the last seven years with steady recovery from the 2008-09 Great Recession.
“Fixing underperforming systems is usually a matter of the plan’s city sponsor contributing the full amount of its actuarially required contribution, because as Chairman Flynn notes elsewhere, the state of Texas is not liable for bail-outs of local systems. It never has been and all systems have recognized that reality for years.
“Through our educational conferences and information sharing efforts, TEXPERS is constantly working to assist all plans in their effort to achieve the PRB’s recommended guidelines for amortization periods. The positive trends validate our efforts.
“Ultimately, we hope to support such a bill as HB 2434, pending our members concerns over the details, because everyone wants all plans to be sound.”
For more information on amortization trends, please see our TEXPERS latest report at http://www.texpers.org/am_period_jan_2017
