The Arizona Chamber Foundation (ACF), a research group, decries the Arizona State Retirement System’s (ASRS) dwindling funded ratio, which it claims is trending toward “complete desperation.”

As a direct result of the ASRS’ situation, the state’s educational environment degraded in an effort to help cover the pension’s unfunded liabilities. The ASRS quadrupled state teachers’ contributions to help mitigate their dwindling funded ratio, subsequently hampering the state’s ability to attract and retain teachers.

The pension used to have a $1 billion funding surplus in 2002, the group’s report contended, but since its issues began, it looked to teachers’ paychecks for help. […]

Despite schools and teachers paying four times more than they used to, the solvency of the system has continued to decline. “Arizona’s pension system for teachers has not yet reached the precipice of complete desperation, but it is trending in that direction,” the report reads.

One of the major consequences is lessened attraction of Arizona’s educational market to prospective teachers.

Read the whole article in the Chief Investment Officer.
_______________________

This article quotes selections from “Arizona State Pension Is Headed for ‘Complete Desperation,’ Research Group Warns” by Steffan Navedo-Perez in the Chief Investment Officer, January 6, 2020.