Strengthening Pension Funds and Investing in Connecticut
The improvements in the State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS) and Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) are detailed in reports released this week. Our latest independent valuations found both systems to be at their highest funding levels in decades.
The majority of our debt as a state came from decades of underfunding our retirement programs for teachers and state employees. With 13 straight years of the legislature making full payments into these systems, as well as policies we adopted in 2017 that use surpluses to pay down debt, we’ve managed to pay off $8.6 billion of debt early, which saves taxpayers $730 million annually.
As the funding levels rise and the debt goes down, that frees up money – $492 million in the next fiscal year alone – that can support tax cuts for working families and key investments in our communities.
We’ve got a lot of work left to do, but this continued fiscal progress will have direct benefits for all Connecticut residents