NEW: Pension Task Force to Focus on Cranston
Monday, February 13, 2012
Representatives of several policy organizations today announced the formation of a collaborative effort to provide research and analysis that may be useful to local officials as they work to design pension reform options for Rhode Island's underfunded municipal retirement systems. Cranston is the first municipal pension plan that the team will analyze.
Cranston, one of many localities in Rhode Island which has an independent pension plan, has a pension funding level below 25 percent and reported unfunded liabilities of $245 million, placing it among the worst-funded in the state.
An extension of the successful task force assembled last fall regarding statewide pensions, the collaboration is organized by the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity's Special Pension Task Force. Task force members will provide transparency data, research, and policy analysis, including for Cranston's actuarial report and funding plan, both of which are required of all independently managed municipal retirement systems by the Rhode Island General Assembly this year.
The Task Force members, who will provide commentary and analysis and who may participate in statewide forums or committee hearings in the General Assembly, include Eileen Norcross of the Mercatus Center, Rich Danker of American Principles Project, Bob Williams of State Budget Solutions, and Mike Stenhouse from the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity.
"This task force is set up to get the best economic, legal, and policy analysis on how to deal with a pension shortfall at the local level," Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity chief executive officer Mike Stenhouse said. "This is a national crisis that must be solved from the ground up through the principles of fiscal federalism."
"This collaboration is a great opportunity to advance best practices in pension reform at the local level," Rich Danker, project director for economics at American Principles Project said. "We hope that the task force's transparent pension fund analysis will foster responsible decision-making."
"The Mercatus Center is pleased to offer its analysis on public pensions to Cranston as it has to other cities and states," senior research fellow Eileen Norcross said. "Fixing the structural problems embedded in these retirement systems is crucial to our nation's fiscal health."
Norcross has done leading research on public pension deficits in Rhode Island, Illinois and New Jersey as part of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University's State and Local Policy Project.
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