The State of Washington Pension Time Bomb to Explode

The Seattle Times reports:

There's more troubling news about the state's pension funds. New projections show taxpayers could be on the hook to pay billions of dollars more than previously thought to fund the system.

The estimates, which deal with the cost of a pension perk that shares stock-market profits with retirees, predict a tab of more than $9 billion over 25 years if the benefit is kept. That's about four times what state officials were contemplating in December.

"It's a much bigger price tag than people realized," said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, referring to recent research done by the state Actuary's Office.

One wonders whether Moody's and Standard and Poor's is really tough enough with these local and friendly Enrons that have 38,000 voters buying some politicians.