South Carolina pension fund deficit increased by $1.4 billion
Billions in unfunded obligations in the S.C. pension funds for state and local government workers, teachers and police officers are a freight train out of control, a state representative said Tuesday.
The unfunded obligations of the largest of those pension funds, the S.C. Retirement System, are expected to have grow by $1.4 billion over the past budget year, according to actuarial firm Gabriel Roeder Smith and Co.
That system serves more than 180,000 state and local government employees, including teachers. Another 134,634 retirees also are part of the system.
The Retirement System has about $24 billion in assets, according to the Retirement System Investment Commission. But the system had $16.8 billion in unfunded liabilities the difference between the amount the pension fund has to pay retirement benefits and the amount it has promised to pay. That red ink is projected to have grown to $18.2 billion in the past budget year.
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article98892092.html