News You Can Use: Public pensions sound, boosted by oil profits

Are pensions going like gangbusters or headed down the drain? It seems every day brings different news. Today, apparently it’s somewhere in the middle, at least for public plans. A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds that overall the nation’s state and local DB plans are “reasonably sound.”

The plans “have enough invested resources set aside to pay for the benefits they are scheduled to pay over the next several decades,” the report reads. Sounds pretty good.

But (there’s always a but), the feds also say that “although public sector workers have thus far been relatively shielded from many of the changes that have occurred in private sector defined benefit commitments, these protections could undergo revision under the pressure of overall future fiscal commitments.”

In other pension news, it turns out one worker’s pain is another worker’s pension. A recent Washington Post report finds that the same high gas prices that are emptying Americans’ household coffers may also be padding others’ retirement funds. Since DB bellwether CalPERS began investing in oil last year (to the tune of $1.1 billion) its returns shot up 68%. The same goes for the Fairfax County, Va., pension at 61% returns after investing in the high-flying price of oil. Perhaps a silver lining to the gloomy cloud cast by pain at the pump.

Read more EBN coverage about pensions here and here, and more about rising gas prices here.