PORTLAND — The cost of Oregon’s public pension system will increase about $885 million over the next two years, a higher increase than was previously expected.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that the new costs are 10 percent higher than previously forecast and 44 percent above the $2 billion per biennium that public employers are currently paying.
The Public Employees Retirement System on Friday released an updated valuation of the pension fund’s assets and liabilities that suggests the system’s investment returns have lagged far behind the system’s assumed rate of 7.5 percent. The fund currently has an unfunded liability of $21.8 billion or about 71 cents in assets for every dollar of liabilities.
The PERS Board will send employers their new rates in September, though they won’t take effect until July 1, 2017.
