Each Oklahoma taxpayer’s financial burden equals $10,000. Read report here: 2009 Oklahoma Financial State of the State
(TulsaToday.com) News reports indicate that U.S. government debt is larger — and a more serious challenge to lawmakers — than many had assumed. A front page story in USA Today on Tuesday (June 7) placed U.S. debt at an astonishing $62 trillion, or $534,000 per household. Knowledgeable analysts contend that Oklahoma and other states cannot [...]
(The Associated Press) The Oklahoma House and Senate on Friday gave final approval to a $6.68 billion budget bill for the upcoming fiscal year that cuts most state agency budgets by about 7 percent. But opposition to the plan began to grow as individual lawmakers began analyzing details of the budget that emerged late this [...]
In a prior web posting titled “CAFR Doesn’t Clearly Disclose Pensions’ Funding Shortfalls” the Institute for Truth in Accounting pointed out that the contributions to the Judicial (URSJJ) and Police (OPPRS) pension plans according to Note 15 in the State’s financial report did not agree to the contributions indicated in the plans’ actuarial reports. An [...]
In the Pew Center on the State study of states’ pension and health care plans $359.8 million was reported as Oklahoma’s unfunded Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) liability. This amount came from State’s 2008 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) Note 15 on page 113. The State did not disclose any OPEB liability in its 2009 [...]
Amount Contributed as a Percentage of Annual Required Contribution
OFPRS 52.70%||OLERS 67.98%||OPERS 75.21%||URSJJ 27.47%
OPPRS 57.10%||TRS 86.60%||WCRP 100.29%
The Money That Has Been Set Aside to Fund Pension Benefits
As a Percentage of the Money Needed to Pay for These Promises
OFPRS 54.24%||OLERS 73.97%||OPERS 66.82%||URSJJ 84.77%
OPPRS 76.23%||TRS 49.81%||WCRP 74.66%
The following are excerpts from the Pew Center on the States’ Report “A trillion gap” The seven state-administered pension systems (of Oklahoma) had a combined funding level of 60.7 percent in fiscal year 2008, a total liability of $33.5 billion and an unfunded liability that was 219 percent of total payroll. During the 1980s and [...]
We have been communicating with people at the OPERS regarding the allocation of some of the State’s pension liability to local government employers. We asked that if the local government employers are responsible for paying a share of the pension contributions, shouldn’t a share of the pension liability be allocated to the the local government [...]
From the Pew Study: In the late 1990s, Oklahoma’s Public Employees Retirement System’s 12.5 percent employer contribution rate exceeded its actuarially required contribution. The legislature wanted to find a way to finance a state across-the-board pay increase—so it cut the employer contribution to 10 percent of payroll, providing money for raises for state agencies. Investments [...]
