Archives: Pension Reform / Articles
Archives: Pension Reform / Articles
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2024 State Legislative Agendas, Unfunded Pension Liabilities, and TABOR: Lee Schalk on NewsTalkSTL
Lee Schalk, ALEC Vice President of Policy, recently joined Tim Jones, Gabe Phifer and Stel Pontikes on NewsTalk STL to discuss unfunded pension liability…
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Sound Pension Reform Helps States Keep the Promise
Recently, ALEC published Unaccountable and Unaffordable, 7th Edition, the annual report analyzing unfunded pension liabilities for every state, as part of ALEC portfolio of 50 years of Trusted…
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Politically Motivated Investing Harming Public Employee Pension Funds: Jonathan Williams on American Radio Journal
In his latest American Radio Journal commentary, ALEC EVP of Policy and Chief Economist Jonathan Williams details how politically driven investing is harming public employee pension funds.
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Potential Pension Troubles Pose A Serious Threat To States: ALEC in The Daily Caller
ALEC CEO Lisa B. Nelson and EVP of Policy and Chief Economist Jonathan Williams were featured in The Daily Caller detailing…
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Liability Trap? Harvard Paper on ALEC Model Policy Gets Debunked
In February, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance published a paper titled “The Liability Trap,” claiming that ALEC model policy would create a “legal quagmire” for fiduciaries…
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New State Laws Keeping Politics Out of Pensions
The states are setting the tone for how to protect retirement plans from politically motivated investment strategies. In April, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Montana Governor Greg Gianforte both…
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North Dakota Achieves Extraordinary Pension Reform
On April 29, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum signed a historic pension reform bill into law protecting public employees and taxpayers from growing unfunded liabilities. House Bill 1040…
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State Legislators of the Month, March 2023: Montana Sen. Tom McGillvray and Montana Rep. Terry Moore
Montana Senator Tom McGillvray For March, it is our pleasure to award Montana Representative Terry Moore and Montana Senator Tom McGillvray as our State Legislators of the Month. Their exceptional…
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A Pension Win for the Golden State: Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill Dies
The Golden State saw a huge win last week. We’re not talking about the Warriors’ NBA championship. Last week, Senate Bill 1173 was halted for this legislative session.
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Tackling $8.28 Trillion in Unfunded State Pension Liabilities
In the sixth edition of Unaccountable and Unaffordable, the authors observed that unfunded state pension liabilities in the United States today stand at a whopping $8.28 trillion, a…
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What’s in a Discount Rate?
Readers of Unaccountable and Unaffordable may have noticed that the measurement of unfunded liabilities differs from the liabilities listed in state annual comprehensive financial reports (ACFRS) and state actuarial…
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ALEC in The Orange County Register: Fossil Fuel Divestment Spells Crisis for Pensioners and Taxpayers
ALEC Vice President of Policy Lee Schalk and Research Manager Thomas Savidge penned an op-ed in The Orange County Register on Sacramento’s latest war on fossil fuels. If the…
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ALEC Seeks to Protect Pensioners in New Public Comment
On December 13, 2021, the American Legislative Exchange Council submitted a comment to the Department of Labor in opposition to a proposed regulation that allows pension plan managers and proxy…
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States: New Year, Same Debt Policy
Recently, state governments have taken advantage of low interest rates and issuing bonds to cover revenue losses from 2020. In doing so, states are adding to their tab of…
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Reform Can Be a Lifeline for Public Pensions Hoping to ‘Tread Water’
This article was originally featured as the cover story for Tax Notes magazine in their October 12, 2020 edition. Retirement savings took a major hit in the early…
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Unaccountable and Unaffordable 2019: A Snapshot of Pension Liabilities Before COVID-19
Like much of the economy, COVID-19 hit public pension investments like a wrecking ball. Early reports from Moody’s estimated that state public pension plans lost nearly $1 trillion in…
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OPEB: The Trillion-Dollar Acronym
This article originally appeared in the March 23, 2020 edition of Tax Notes State. Upon hearing the term “OPEB,” most people look bewildered, not knowing that OPEB, short for…
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Across the States: Market Volatility and State Solutions
Learn more about how state policymakers can best position their states to weather these challenging times of economic uncertainly. As many states look to re-evaluate their budgets to factor in…
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Lessons from Puerto Rico’s Struggles with Debt and Unfunded Pension Liabilities
In a recent press release from the congressionally-appointed Financial Oversight & Management Board (FOMB) for Puerto Rico, the board announced that it filed its Plan of Adjustment to restructure…
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Denying Pension Realities?
A recent paper published by the Brookings Institution claims that “there is no imminent ‘crisis’ for most pension plans.” At the risk of sounding like a naysayer, this conclusion…