Op-ed by Stephen Walke, includes “The state of Vermont should honor its obligation to fully fund its teachers’ retirement system. It is simply not fair to place the burden on our educators. … Whether the approximately $1.5 billion owed appears on the state’s balance sheet as obligations backed by the full faith and credit of the state — that is, bonds — or as a pension fund liability, the state’s fiscal position is the same.” hmm

Editorial, includes “Democrats stipulated in their $1.9 trillion spending bill that none of the $350 billion going to states and localities could be ‘deposited into a public pension fund.’ That always looked like a trick, and Vermont is the first state to prove the point.”

By Scott Rasmussen, includes “… On a percentage basis, the biggest increases were found in Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.”

Truth in Accounting ranked Vermont 48th out of 50 states in terms of a Financial Transparency Score.  While EAI often discusses what programs should or shouldn't be in state budgets, the results of those budgets are found in a government’s comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR).

The 2020 Financial State of the States report surveys the fiscal health of the 50 states prior to the coronavirus pandemic. This data is released today by Truth in Accounting (TIA), a think tank that analyzes government financial reporting.

How large could the shortfall in state government general revenues be, amidst the coronavirus and related crises? 

The coronavirus pandemic is paving the way for a state budget crisis that will likely be deeper than any Maine has seen in decades.

Two weeks later, there’s little indication that the Statehouse gears are moving on the issue — a House Gov Ops hearing on pensions was on the calendar last week, then it wasn’t. 

The national debt is a ticking time bomb now topping $23.1 trillion – and that isn’t even the total debt that American taxpayers owe. Forty of the nation’s fifty states don’t have enough money to meet their obligations, with a total of $1.5 trillion in growing unfunded liabilities.

The unfunded pension liabilities facing the Vermont State Employee and Teacher Retirement systems are crippling Vermont.

On July 10, Fitch Ratings announced it had downgraded Vermont’s sterling AAA bond rating to its second highest level — AA+ — citing the state’s demographic challenges and labor force, which has been “flat to declining” over the last decade.

On July 10, Fitch, a major credit agency, reduced Vermont’s bond rating. This was expected, after Moody’s, another large credit agency, reduced Vermont’s bond rating last October.

“… John Pelletier, director at the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College and a member of the Vermont Business Roundtable's Pension Reform Task Force, explains how Vermont's pension pressures could mean more demands on state spending and why it leaves Vermont especially vulnerable to a future economic recession. …”

But this problem isn’t new. For years, the state’s budget writers have faced a growing burden from the teachers’ pension fund liability.

In July 1995, Vermont’s state auditor wrote a letter to the speaker of the House, copying the Senate leader and the governor.

On October 23, Moody’s Investors Service announced that it was downgrading Vermont’s general obligation bond rating from Aaa to Aa1, citing demographic concerns along with the state’s unfunded pension obligations.

More than one third of state governments are doing a good job with fiscal transparency, a new report released by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Truth in Accounting (TIA) indicates. The report, which evaluated the transparency of state government finances, found the remaining two-thirds in need of improvements.

Last week VTDigger published a story that began, "the gap between what Vermont owes current and future retired state employees and teachers, and what assets it has to pay them, has ballooned in the last decade, threatening not only the future of the state’s retirement plans, but also the state’s credit rating and other markers of its financial standing."

Americans are living longer and that may not be good news for states facing large unfunded pension liabilities.

If you pay income or real estate taxes in Vermont, you are like an insurance company.