Report: Promises with a Price

States have promised at least $2.73 trillion in pension, health care and other retirement benefits for public employees over the next three decades, according to a report released by the Pew Center on the States. Promises with a Price, the first 50-state analysis of its kind, finds that states have saved enough to cover about 85 percent of their long-term pension costs, but only three percent of the funds needed for promised retiree health care and other non-pension benefits.

Note: In February 2010, the Pew Center on the States released a new report on retirement benefits for public employees, The Trillion Dollar Gap: Underfunded State Retirement Systems and the Road to Reform. Read the key findings and download the full report. 

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December 17, 2007 -
Promises with a Price (Adobe PDF)

See all Reports in: Economic Competitiveness

Associated Press Release

December 18, 2007 - Pew Study Finds States Face $2.73 Trillion Bill for Retiree Benefits