County Imposed Pension Costs

Not only does the City of Georgetown impose pension costs on city taxpayers, but Williamson County does also. A recent research article from the Texas Public Policy Foundation identifies the flawed policies followed by the Texas County and District Retirement System (TCDRS) which invests and manages the retirement funds for county employees.

An extended period of poor investment performance by TCDRS would have to be offset by additional taxpayer funding in exactly the same way the Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) will have to be bailed out by taxpayers if subpar investment performance continues.

TCDRS continues to operate under the fiction that going forward they will earn 8% investment returns, even though they have not approached that level in recent years.

TCDRS' diversifed investment portfolio decreased in total assets from $24.6 billion to $24.4 billion in 2015. The total return after fees was -0.7%. Over 10 years the fund returned 5.5% annually.

TCDRS claims a rediculious 88.7% funded ratio under its assumption of 8% annual investment returns. All of these numbers can be found in the 2015 CAFR for Texas County and District Retirement System (TCDRS).

It's time to let your county commissioner know that you are watching them and that they better solve the pension underfunding problem before it becomes unmanageable.