By the Numbers

The Employees' Retirement System of Rhode Island (ERSRI) administers and invests five pension funds.

• State employees
• Teachers
• Municipal employees retirement system (MERS)
• State police
• Judges

Below are the details for the two largest plans in the system – state employees and teachers:

The state retirement system is funded by three sources:

• Taxpayer-supported contributions from the state’s general revenue budget.
• Employee contributions made through payroll deductions.
• Returns on state investments.

All of the numbers and percentages associated with the retirement system assume that state investments will see a return of 7.5 percent. Relying on the stock market to consistently hit this goal is risky.

Unfunded pension liability for ERSRI:

• State employees: $2.7 billion
• Teachers: $4.133 billion
• Total new unfunded liability: $6.833 billion

An unfunded pension liability is the additional amount of money that must be added to the system today to fully support promises made to retirees and current employees for services already rendered.

The state has only 48.4 percent of the funding it needs to support the current pension system.

Number of retired state employees and beneficiaries: 11,421
Number of active state employees: 11,122
Average state employee pension: $25,887

Number of retired teachers and beneficiaries: 10,213
Number of active teachers: 13,350
Average teacher pension: $41,735

Taxpayer-supported contribution rate:
State employees: 36.34 percent
Teachers: 35.25 percent

The taxpayer-supported contribution is paid through the general revenues of the State of Rhode Island. Current trends show this percentage increasing annually. Also, this rate does not include contributions for Social Security or other post-employment benefits such as healthcare.

The state employee and teacher contribution rates, 8.75 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively, are fixed in statute and are controlled by the General Assembly

Annual total amounts taken from the taxpayer-supported general revenues to support current retirement benefit levels:

• State employees: $246.5 million
• Teachers: $375.3 million
• Total: $621 million

This number is expected to grow to $1 billion by 2022. The more general budget revenue that goes to support pension benefits, the less funding will be available for other critical public services, such as education, health care, public transportation and roads and bridges.

*All numbers are based on the June 30, 2010 Employee Retirement System of Rhode Island valuation.