Can NJ keep its pension promises? No way, many officials concede

Asbury Park Press

Jack Curtis was driving with his wife to the grocery store recently when the 63-year-old elementary school principal from Morris County announced they needed to downsize their retirement dreams.

Why? Because the state's pension system is so far in arrears that Curtis doesn't think he can count on it anymore.

The reality of New Jersey's pension system crisis is sinking in.

The numbers are mind-numbing. As of June 2009, the state's pension systems faced unfunded liabilities of $45.8 billion. That number assumed an annual 8.25 percent return on investments, an actuarial standard that many experts are now declaring is unrealistic. In the past decade, the pension system averaged 2.56 percent a year, not nearly enough to keep pace with projected costs.

More pessimistic assumptions about rates of return peg the pension system liability as high as $173.9 billion — not to mention some $55 billion in unfunded health care costs.

This long article is well worth your time. In the future, many will find "democracy" is a God that failed them.