PERS Update: Pension Costs are Going Up $885 Million

Tough financial news from the state about how much public employers are going to have pay into the state's pension system. A report out Friday shows public employers will have to pay $885 million more over the next two years.

The system's actuary, the official for the Public Employees Retirement System who keeps track of the system's financial condition, told the board's regularly scheduled meeting that a new look at the numbers resulted in the bad news.

The $885 million is 10 percent higher than the last forecast 44 percent above what employers are currently paying.

This affects state agencies, school districts, and cities.

According to the actuary, the investments made by PERS have lagged behind what officials assumed they would be getting.

As a result, the system has 71 cents for every dollar in liabilities resulting in an unfunded liability of $21.8 billion. That is a leap from the end of 2013 when the system had 86 cents for every dollar of liabilities and an unfunded liability of only $8.5 billion.

It's a problem that is expected to get worse and likely bring about another attempt by the state legislature to make changes to PERS.

The legislature did pass a series of reforms in 2013 but most of them were thrown out by the Oregon Supreme Court.

PERS will notify employers of their new rates in September though they won't go into effect until July 2017.