Public pensions

Changes to return assumptions ease short-term budget pressure while lowering funding for the state pension system.

Moody's says CalPERS' faster debt repayment plan is credit positive despite the budget strain it will provoke.

The average funded ratio of suburban and downstate Illinois public safety funds is 51%.

Connecticut Treasurer Denise Nappier told lawmakers that Gov. Dannel Malloy's plan to push out payments would violate a bond covenant.

The power of public employee unions to influence elections and their wage and benefit arrangements could be at stake.

CalPERS' decision to shorten amortization period could further challenge local governments in California.

The California Supreme Court could upend legal assumptions about public employee pensions.

The unfunded pension burden for Chicago, Cook County, and other local funds hit $50 billion in fiscal 2016.

“We’re headed to a place where we don’t necessarily want to be,” said the city's chief financial officer.

Harvey, Illinois can ill afford higher pension contributions as it's yet to make good on defaulted bond payments.

Rising unfunded pension and healthcare liabilities and bond financing plans led a state committee to recommend increasing the debt cap.

Chicago has yet to identify to how it will pay for higher future pension funding, but Kroll says the city can manage.

Benefit changes for the city’s public safety pensions will remain, said Moody's Investors Service.

Pensions in some California cities to grow to 21.5% of general fund in seven years.

California is still decades away from prefunding retiree health benefits liability, said State Controller Betty Yee.

An Illinois lawmaker has filed a bill that would authorize the massive borrowing.

Several market participants said it’s hard to take such a proposal seriously.

Calling his two-year budget "difficult but honest," Gov. Matt Bevin cut most state agency budgets by 6.25% and borrowed to fund reserves.

The ruling increases the body of law supporting strict legal protections for public pension benefits, the rating agency said.

City administrators in La Verne will pursue multiple strategies — some meant to cut costs while others are designed to generate revenue — as part of a plan to pay off nearly $50 million in employee pension costs.