By Geoff Mulvihill, includes “The Pew Charitable Trust report credits a booming stock market over the past year as well as states’ longer-term steps, which include boosting taxpayer contributions to public pension funds and reducing promised retirement benefits, particularly to newly hired workers. … The health of public pension systems resonates beyond government employees. When the systems are poorly funded, state and local governments have to consider raises taxes or cutting basic government services to pay retirees’ pensions.”