Solving the public pension crisis

The bankruptcy filings of large municipalities, like Detroit and Stockton, Calif., highlight a growing problem that needs more than a temporary fix.

Many, if not most, municipal governments are awash in pension debt. Lots of states are in the same boat. Part of the problem is today’s artificially low interest-rate environment, which has played havoc with pension assets and liabilities. Part of the problem also is a long history of governments not making the required contributions to their plans. Now they don’t have the money to do so, and the debt has become debilitating. It’s gotten so bad that many cities have found themselves paying more for retiree benefits than they do for public services such as fire and police.

About 21,000 retired workers receive pensions from the city of Detroit; the average annual benefit for retired municipal workers there is $19,000. Retired police officers and firefighters receive an average of $30,500.

Moody’s Investors Service recently said Detroit’s bankruptcy could set a precedent for other financially distressed communities. Somewhat ironically, while Moody’s doesn’t anticipate numerous defaults and bankruptcies, more could come if Detroit successfully reduces and restructures its debt and pension liabilities.

What can be done to prevent future pension problems?

Many believe the best way to get out from under crippling pension debt is to close these plans to new hires and move employees to lower-cost defined contribution plans.

Other options include plan termination, asking employees to contribute more toward their pension and retiree health care benefits, tinkering with cost-of-living adjustments and not allowing public workers to “spike” their retirement earnings by cashing in vacation and sick time at the end of their career as a way to increase their retirement benefit calculation.

Here’s a closer look at each of these ideas:

Terminate the plan

Unlike corporations, municipalities don’t have as much flexibility to change their pension plans. They need the support of their state legislatures to make any substantive changes.

Although it can be tough to win lawmakers’ support, the idea of closing a municipality’s pension plan altogether and moving workers to a lower-cost plan is catching on.

So long as a municipality has enough money to pay all benefits owed to participants and beneficiaries, it can opt to terminate its defined benefit plan. To do that, the plan administrator must either purchase an annuity from an insurance company for its participants or pay the benefits some other way, such as in a lump-sum payout.

Proponents of this scenario say it may cost the employer more upfront in payouts, but will save money in the long-term by shifting those pension liabilities off the books.  

Those who expect to receive pension benefits oppose the closure of the plan because their future security is tied to having those benefits. They feel they were promised a guaranteed benefit and to reduce it or shift it to a less secure option, like a defined contribution plan, is seen as a full frontal assault on their future security.

Corporations already are shifting their retirement assets away from defined benefit plans in droves. A recent survey by Prudential Financial Inc. and CFO Research Services found that nearly 60 percent of companies have either frozen accruals for all participants or closed their defined benefit pension plans to new entrants and many more said they were likely to do so within the next two years.

Switch to a DC plan, gradually

Some states including Florida are slowly reforming their pension plans. Rather than abruptly pulling any plugs, they give all of their employees the option to either enroll in the state’s traditional pension plan for government workers or to contribute to a 401(k)-type plan.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, however, all new hires in Florida government will automatically be placed into the defined contribution plan as the state phases out its defined benefit plan entirely.