Pension Resource Center Added to Federal Government Relations Page

Continued scrutiny of state and local government retirement plans is expected to last into 2016. GFOA will continue to educate members of Congress about the true fiscal condition of public pension systems, consider whether proposed initiatives provide the flexibility the public sector needs to provide retirement security to its employees, and oppose congressional proposals that undermine state and local governments’ authority to effectively govern and finance their pension plans. Often, congressional proposals to address pension “problems” are not limited to the plans that are in distress. Instead, they seek to impose federal mandates on all state and local governments in areas within the fiscal sovereignty of those states and localities.These proposals are conflicting, administratively burdensome, and costly. Moreover, some of their assumptions about management of pension funds directly contradict GFOA’s best practices on pension and benefits administration. GFOA’s Federal Liaison Center has created a new Pension Resource Center, a repository for pension facts and tools for government finance officers. Our new resource center gives GFOA members the information you need to communicate the true fiscal health of state and local pension systems and the tools to communicate these fairly complex topics to elected officials.