Retirees Rising Costs

An article was released recently about an interesting fact that everyone can relate to. Texas has estimated the cost or rather bill of state funded retiree program which currently amounts to almost thirty seven million dollars in unfunded liabilities. An unfunded liability is incurred when a government entity promises to pay benefits but hasn't set aside money to fund all or part of the promised payments. The reason the amount is so large is the outstanding size of the state work force here in Texas and the ever increasing number of retirees. This leads to numerous assumptions among current state employees about whether or not there will be a retirement fund all together in the near or even distant future. According to Texas law these rights for retirement or even basic health benefits are not required constitutionally and may be trimmed or eliminated by lawmakers at the capitol. Texas, like most states, handles benefits as a payment plan of sorts paying what is needed as time progresses. The best way to fix this problem currently in the state would be to set money aside in a trust specifically for the purpose of preventing further debt in this part of the budget. It could then be used to pay bills while gaining interest though a definitely a more costly option than charging employees further percentages of their pay. Currently legislators such as Texas Speaker of The House Tom Craddick have said that options will be explored to correct the problem before the 2009 session but if these problems continue we may find a large issue or hot button topic that will draw a great deal of attention on the third floor of the Capitol.