The Oregonian
July 31st, 2014
Legislative reforms to public pension benefits, coupled with higher than expected investment returns, have stanched the meteoric rise in required contributions to Oregon's public pension system, the system's actuary says.
Barring a decision by the Oregon Supreme Court that those benefit changes were unconstitutional, the news will bring relief to lawmakers' budget discussion next year and take the politically uncomfortable conversation of further pension cuts off the legislative to-do list.
Preliminary results from the actuary's biannual system valuation show that its unfunded liability - a gaping $16.3 billion at the end of 2011 - had shrunk to $8.5 billion at the end of 2013. The pension system's funded ratio also improved from 73 percent at the end of 2011 to 86 percent as of the end of last year, meaning it has 86 cents in assets for every dollar in liabilities.