Alaska has a problem. Over a quarter of its promised public pensions have yet to be funded, known as unfunded liabilities, leaving the state in a precarious financial position. In recent years, the state […]
Alaska’s Unfunded Liabilities
How Alaska’s Defined Contribution Plan and Supplemental Annuity Plan Compare to the Gold Standard
By Richard Hiller and Rod Crane at Reason Foundation, in conjunction with Alaska Policy Forum This is a review of Alaska’s defined contribution retirement plan (DCR), also referred to as Tier 4, and […]
How a Retirement Plan Change Impacted Teacher Retention in Alaska
Authored and published by Reason Foundation. Abstract In 2005, Alaska enacted one of the most radical retirement system reforms in the public sector by discontinuing enrollment into its defined-benefit pension plan and creating […]
The Best and the Worst of the 2022 Legislative Session
As is often the case, there was no shortage of bills introduced to the 32nd Legislature (which comprises 2021 and 2022). Not counting resolutions, legislators introduced 690. Those that did not pass both […]
Anchorage’s Fiscal Health Receives a ‘D’ Grade
As of 2020, Anchorage faced a financial cliff of $658.7 million, leading Truth in Accounting (TIA) to label it a “sinkhole city” because the municipal government did not have enough assets to cover […]
Costs & Risks of Alaska Pension Changes
Experts from Reason Foundation’s Pension Integrity Project recently joined us for a 45-minute discussion on the costs and risks of changes to Alaska’s pension systems. You can watch the recording here (begins 04:30), […]
WEBINAR: Costs and Risks of Alaska Pension Changes
In 2006, the state of Alaska moved from one type of retirement system (defined benefits pension-DBP) for state employees to a 401(k)-style defined contribution retirement plan. The reason for this switch was concerns […]
Testimony: Retirement Benefits