Senator Orrin Hatch: A letter from NCTR Executive Director Meredith Williams

April 28, 2015. On behalf of the National Council on Teacher Retirement (NCTR) and the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS), representing the majority of state and local government retirement system participants, we congratulate you on your chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee.  We look forward to working with you in the new Congress on issues related to one of the most important challenges that the nation faces:  the retirement security of the American people, whether publically or privately employed.

In this regard, we want to assure you that the state of public pensions is strong, and growing stronger every day.  For example, according to the recent “Wilshire 2015 Report on State Retirement Systems: Funding Levels and Asset Allocation,” the funding ratio for the 131 state-sponsored defined benefit retirement systems covered in its study was 80 percent in 2014, up from 74 percent in 2013.  Read more.