Columnist and former Grand Forks Herald columnist Mike Jacobs was on the radio show today talking about his recent column about Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign for re-election. He said Democratic sources he’s spoken to are worred that the incumbent has lost votes in the state’s Native American communities. He also said Heitkamp’s staff, based on…
Robert Marquette: A Libertarian Fix for Social Security and Pensions
Social Security and both public and private sector pension funds are in serious trouble. The Social Security retirement program has been running deficits since 2010, and its trust funds will be empty by 2036. Unless Washington finds more revenues (a.k.a. taxes), the Old-Age and Survivors benefits offered by Social Security will be cut 23 percent…
What Will Budget Cuts Mean For North Dakota's Unfunded Pension Liabilities?
Over at Watchdog today I write about a recently-released audit of the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), which is the pension plan for the state’s employees (the teachers have a different fund). The audit shows that PERS has over $680.7 million in unfunded liabilities, and is currently only 77.8 percent funded. That’s not good, though…
Bette Grande: North Dakota Teacher Pension's Unfunded Liability Is Worse Than You Think
Rob posted last week about a piece in The Forum that addressed the Teachers’ Fund for Retirement (“TFFR”). He was absolutely correct that there should not be a bailout of TFFR without serious reform of the program. The future of our public pension plans is an important debate and I spent much of my legislative…
No Pension Bailouts Without Pension Reforms
North Dakota’s Teachers Fund For Retirement (TFFR) is in trouble, but there’s an interesting political dynamic surrounding it. Republicans, who have been in charge of managing the investments of the fund for some time now, don’t want to own up to fiscal reality. Democrats, on the other hand, don’t want public concern over the fund…
C.T. Marhula: Fully Fund State Pensions
There was an excellent article recently (writer, Helmut Schmidt) on problems and proposals regarding the teacher’s retirement fund. While many SAB readers may prefer a defined contribution plan; I remain a strong supporter of defined benefit pension plans. [mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#000000″ txt_color=”#ffffff”]”First, the problems in North Dakota are not like Detroit or New…
Bills For Balanced Budget, Oil Exports, Pensions And DUI Punishments Filed
Last night a ton of new bills were filed for the 2015 legislative sessions (and some of you were complaining that they weren’t being posted). I’ve written about a couple of the more interesting bills this morning (allowing concealed carry for elected officials on public property, $5,000 given to each child born in ND) but…
North Dakota Tops In Budget Health But Spending, Pensions Present Long Term Problems
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has released a ranking of the states based on fiscal condition. Not surprisingly, in terms of cash and budget solvency, North Dakota comes in at the top of the list at #6 and #2, respectively. This is thanks to a roaring state economy driven by an oil boom and…
Thanks To Out Of Control Pensions, Local Governments Spending More To Do Less
The right-left divide on government is between the liberal preference for high-tax, high-service government and the conservative preference for low-tax, low-service government. But thanks to out of control defined-benefit pensions, what Americans are increasingly getting is high-tax, low service government. The worst of both worlds: Local governments are spending less on public services because public…
Legislature Set To Give New State Workers Option For Defined Contribution Plans
Public pensions, nationally, are a mess and while North Dakota has escaped most of the nation’s economic problems over the last several years, pension headaches aren’t something we’ve been able to afford. Late last year the North Dakota Auditor’s office published some ugly pension numbers for the state’s Public Employees Retirement System. According to the audit, NDPERS…
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