Despite a significant increase in the amount of money being put into state retirement coffers, Massachusetts still faces a huge shortfall in plan funding, according to the Boston Herald.
The state will be adding $538 million in contributions to the system this year, ups from $465 million in 2011. All totaled, the state government paid state retirees $1.495 billion in total benefits last year, itself a significant jump from the $1.224 billion paid three years earlier.
Pension reform passed in both the Massachusetts House and Senate in 2011 and went into effect in April, increasing the minimum age for new hires and preventing pre-retirees from "spiking" their income in their final years of employment to boost their benefits.
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More than 200 state retirees collect pension checks totalling more than $100,000 per year, the five highest earners being former employees of the UMass Medical School – some of whom earn nearly a quarter of a million dollars per year in pension benefits.
The state's substantial educational community has also means that 27 out of 30 of those receiving state benefits were formerly employed by a public college or university.
A spokesperson for state treasurer Steve Grossman told the Herald that pension reform will allow Massachusetts to fully fund its obligations by 2040.
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