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Blog: Pensions

American Citizenship, Opportunity
July 30, 2024

Increasing Number of Retirees Driving Pension Expenditures

Pension expenditures in the two largest public pension systems are on the rise in Massachusetts, so it's important to understand the factors behind the growth in annual payouts, including an increasing average pension and an increasing number of retirees.
American Citizenship, Opportunity
July 30, 2024

Where Does Massachusetts' Pension Money Go?

Billions of dollars went to retirees in 2023 from the state's two largest pension funds. Not unexpectedly, the data show that the amount of money given to a specific retiree may depend on many factors outside of where the retiree used to work.
American Citizenship, Opportunity
July 19, 2022

New Report: Massachusetts Maintains Reasonable Debt Relative to GSP

Massachusetts has more debt than any New England state. Can we afford to pay it off or will we hand it down to future generations?
American Citizenship, Opportunity
July 22, 2019

How Do Massachusetts’s State Pensions Compare with Their Peers?

For those who have kept up with Pioneer’s work on pensions, it’s clear that Massachusetts’s public retirement systems are troubled. However, readers still may wonder how these systems compare to those in other states.  Unfortunately, a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts...
Opportunity
July 10, 2019

MassOpenBooks: A Look at Annual Pension Trends

In 2018, the Commonwealth provided $5.2 Billion in pension benefits to retirees in the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System (MTRS) and Massachusetts State Employees’ Retirement System (MSERS). Of this amount, 42.6 percent went to the MSERS and 57.4 percent went to the MTRS....
American Citizenship, Opportunity
July 8, 2019

A Follow-up on Pension Systems with the Highest Growth Rates in Unfunded Liability

As Pioneer has previously discussed, Massachusetts continues to kick the can down the road with regard to its public pension liabilities. Legislators and municipalities have not only delayed the funding schedules of these pension systems, but have also back-loaded them, leaving the...
American Citizenship, Opportunity
July 2, 2019

MassPensions: Three Highest Growth Rates in Unfunded Pension Liability

It’s no secret that Massachusetts’s public pension systems are following a dangerous path. At both the state and local levels, officials have allowed unfunded pension liabilities to grow at unsustainable rates. According to a recent Pioneer study, unfunded liabilities of the state’s...
American Citizenship, Opportunity
July 1, 2019

MassPensions: Highest Reductions in Unfunded Liabilities

Despite the overall dismal performance of Massachusetts’s public pensions, there are systems that have done a noteworthy job of reducing their unfunded liability. For taxpayers who contribute to these systems and public employees who benefit from them, this is great news. It...
American Citizenship, Opportunity
June 18, 2019

MassPensions: The Leaders and Laggards among Massachusetts Public Pension Systems

As detailed in a recent study published by the Pioneer Institute, Massachusetts continues to put off fully funding its public pension plans. This is especially concerning since the interest that accrues from deferred payments dramatically increases the amount taxpayers ultimately have to pay.   To help inform citizens about the...
Opportunity
June 12, 2019

A List of the Top Pension Earners in 2018

The Massachusetts’ Teachers Retirement System and the Massachusetts State Employees’ Retirement System provided approximately $2.99 and $2.22 billion in benefits, respectively, for a total of $5.21 billion in 2018. According to Pioneer Institute’s MassOpenBooks, a government transparency tool that provides data on...