Washington State is $5.9 billion behind in funding the oldest retirement plans for public servants.
Or how far it was behind before world markets crashed and the state investment fund for pensions lost $15.6 billion in value. Now the unfunded liability in both the public employee and teachers' plans is bigger, but no one knows exactly how much bigger.
"They were counting on the stock market going up and up, and which it did. But now it's paying the price," said Howard Glastetter of Nisqually. "It's scary for everybody. I'm not worried, but for everybody else."
Glastetter, 70, started working for the state in 1969 and retired as a computer analyst in 1995. He's not worried about his pension because he knows the state is legally obligated to pay it.
But the state hasn't kept up payments to the oldest retirement plans. And this year, state leaders, looking to escape a massive budget gap, are tossing around ideas to put off payments still a little further into the future.
at theolympian.com
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