The House of Delegates approved their version of the state’s $35.8 billion budget Friday, moving the process into its final stage to resolve differences with the Senate. The budget bill was approved 95-43, but not before Republican lawmakers attempted one last time to derail its passage. [...more]
The House of Delegates passed pay increases of up to $14,500 for Maryland judges Tuesday in an 84-47 vote. The delegates were convinced they were out of time to get the Senate to agree to a smaller increase of $4,800, before an automatic $29,000 raise took effect on Thursday. [...more]
Officials from the State Pension and Retirement System disagree with the potential cost savings that could come from firing Wall Street managers touted by an independent analyst at a budget hearing this week. [...more]
A year after a new law was signed prohibiting inmates from having access to people’s sensitive personal information, an audit found that inmates in Maryland Correctional Enterprises doing data entry could see some Social Security numbers. [...more]
The Maryland pension system had a good year in fiscal 2011, earning 20% on its investments -- up from 14% in 2010 -- and giving it $37.6 billion in assets. But the Maryland system did not perform as well as most large pension systems around the country, showing earnings worse than four out of five of them, according to a report from the Department of Legislative Services. [...more]
The state teachers union is rejecting most of the final recommendations of the special pension commission, particularly its proposal to shift half the funding of pensions onto county school boards or governments. In a strong letter to the governor and legislative leaders, the union also wants county governments to be forced to fully fund school budgets and to give them authority to raise more taxes or disregard local tax caps. [...more]
Thanks to an improving national economy and careful portfolio management, the State Retirement and Pension System blew past its estimates and gained $6 billion in fiscal 2011, a 20% rate of return. The performance was nearly three times the benchmark rate of return of 7.75%, set by the system’s board of trustees. [...more]
The special state pensions commission wrapped up its work Thursday, recommending more possible changes in public employee retirement benefits. These included shifting half the cost of teacher pensions to local school systems and asking the attorney general to take a hard look at the legality of reducing cost-of-living adjustments for current retirees. [...more]
The gap between the promises states have made for public employees’ retirement benefits and the money set aside to pay for them grew to at least $1.26 trillion in fiscal year 2009—a 26% increase in one year—according to a new report from the Pew Center for the States. Maryland ranks below more than half the states in its level of funding. [...more]
It is time for state governments to start owning up to the true value of their pension debt and make big changes to ensure that they can meet their obligations to retirees, an economist told a congressional committee Thursday. [...more]
