AUSTIN – Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Pension Integrity Project at Reason Foundation released the report “Pension Solvency Overview: Teacher Retirement System of Texas.”
“At nearly six times the size of the next largest public pension plan in the Lone Star State, the TRS plan holds substantial influence on the fiscal health of the state budget and the pocketbooks of Texans,” said Dr. Vance Ginn, director of the Center for Economic Prosperity and senior economist at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “Despite the central role TRS plays in the lives of Texas educators, the plan has amassed massive unfunded liabilities and is in dire need of reform.”
This report is the first part of an ongoing information series spotlighting the driving factors leading to the pension debt and education crowd-out caused by underlying structural problems within TRS.
“Texas is going to have to find ways to fund public education and keep the pension promises it has made to teachers while also managing the long-term budget challenges that come with its growing pension debt,” said Leonard Gilroy, senior managing editor of the Pension Integrity Project at Reason Foundation. “The recent changes to the assumptions of the TRS plan — made in the interest of consistency with sound actuarial practices — helped expose billions more in unfunded liabilities previously unrecognized and serve as a strong warning signal that state leaders must address these issues.”
To read the full paper, please visit:
https://www.texaspolicy.com/pension-solvency-overview-teacher-retirement-system-trs-of-texas/