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Report: Public pensions flagging financially in three Southeastern states | Alabama

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Steve Wilson | The Center Square – 2023-08-02 05:34:00

(The Center Square) — A new report says public pension systems in Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina are struggling financially and need reforms to avoid taxpayer bailouts or riskier investments.

The Equable Institute, which authored the report, is a bipartisan nonprofit that helps policymakers solve funding challenges with public pensions.

The authors, Executive Director Anthony Randazzo and research Vice President Jonathan Moody, say most state and municipal pension plans are distressed or fragile based on their analysis of their funding ratios, which is defined as the share of future obligations covered by current assets. 

Regionally, South Carolina is in the worst position with a funding ratio of only 58.3%. Its unfunded liabilities would gobble up 9.21% of the Palmetto State’s gross domestic product.

According to the report, officials in the Palmetto State have increased their taxpayer contributions for the South Carolina Retirement System starting in 2018 with a 200-basis point increase from the previous 11.56% rate and 100 basis points after that. 

Mississippi’s funding ratio is at 59.9% and its unfunded liabilities would eat up 14.88% of the state’s GDP.

Alabama’s funding ratio hovers at 61.7% and its unfunded liability represents 8.88% of the state’s GDP.

Most of the Southeastern states have well-funded pension systems, led by Tennessee (97.4% funding ratio), followed by North Carolina (84.1%), Florida (82.2%), Georgia (72.3%) and Louisiana (71.5%).

The authors singled out Mississippi over what they consider to be an excessive predicted rate of return. Mississippi is the only state nationally with a 7.55% investment forecast, but the Public Employee’s Retirement System of Mississippi’s governing board is planning to eventually lower that to 7%.

The study’s authors also say that many pension funds have predicted rates of return for their investment that are too high. According to their data, the average rate of return for pension investments nationally is 6.88%, a figure they say is still too optimistic.

According to their data in 2020, 54 pension funds had a predicted rate of 7.5%, but 65% of those funds have lowered those expectations. 

Pension funds are also investing more in riskier parts of their portfolios, which includes stock markets, real estate and hedge funds due to lower interest rates. According to Equable’s data, this type of investment is the largest in history, both in terms of the dollar figure ($1.63 trillion) and the 34% share of pension investments. 

According to the report, taxpayers (with the employer contribution) are paying a bigger slice, as unfunded liability payments have increased by 64%.

Unfunded liability payments have increased 2,089%, going from less than $5 billion in 2001 to more than $100 billion in 2022.

Demographics are also playing a role in the unraveling of pension funds. In 2001, according to the report, 12.6 million active public sector workers supported 7.6 million retirees and beneficiaries. In 2015, the number of retirees eclipsed the number of active employees, with the latest data showing 14.2 million workers supporting 18.2 million retirees and beneficiaries. 

Nationally, the report says unfunded liabilities slightly decreased from $1.57 trillion to $1.49 trillion, while it predicts the average funding ratio of state and local pension plans will improve from 75.4% to 77.4%.

The report also says these gains aren’t enough to improve the long-term financial outlook of these pension funds, requiring policymakers to increase the amount paid by state and local government employees, the taxpayer contribution or both. 

The five states with the largest unfunded liabilities – Illinois, California, New Jersey, Texas and Pennsylvania – have a shortfall of $787.3 billion. This figure is slightly larger than the rest of the nation’s unfunded pension liabilities combined ($778.6 billion). 

Also, the report says 33.7% of the unfunded liabilities in the five biggest states belongs to Illinois and California. 

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News from the South - Louisiana News Feed

Carbon capture hearings will hear from concerned residents, industry | Louisiana

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Nolan McKendry | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-25 16:45:00

(The Center Square) − Louisiana Rep. Joseph Orgeron, R-Jefferson, is taking a less cautious position on carbon capture — acknowledging local concerns while defending the role the technology can play in reducing industrial emissions.

Orgeron will vice chair a high-stakes showdown over the future of carbon capture in Louisiana at the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee on Tuesday, where lawmakers are set to hear a sweeping package of bills aimed at reining in the state’s growing carbon sequestration industry.

“I sympathize with those constituents who are looking for the opt-out option—to not have it in their parish,” Orgeron told The Center Square in an interview. “But I represent an area basically awash in hydrocarbon harvesting from the early ’50s, ’60s. We’ve had our environment kind of shared with the hydrocarbon harvesting industry, so we’re a little bit more open to it.”

Orgeron chairs the state’s Clean Hydrogen Task Force and has positioned himself as an advocate for low-carbon technologies that can reduce emissions without sidelining Louisiana’s traditional energy sector.

“In Louisiana, we have the hydrocarbons, like natural gas, that can then be cracked to make the hydrogen feedstock that’s needed,” Orgeron said. “And rather than release [the carbon] into the environment… basically capture that carbon and sequester it safely in underground pore space that we also have a large amount of.”

Still, he acknowledged the desire of some parishes to block carbon capture developments and said he would support local opt-outs — though not without consequence.

“They would have to relinquish any and all benefits, monetary benefits, that they may receive from the added space, the added industry… that may come from carbon sequestration in the state,” Orgeron said.

The legislation, driven largely by Republican lawmakers from western and central Louisiana, targets everything from eminent domain powers to public notice requirements, with an emphasis on strengthening landowner rights and local control.

Rep. Rodney Schamerhorn, R-Beauregard, said in a previous interview that past land seizures for projects like Fort Polk and the Toledo Bend Reservoir have left lasting scars in his region, fueling deep mistrust of new carbon capture initiatives. While many residents initially supported the technology, he said they now feel misled about its purpose and risks.

The committee will also take up House Bill 4 by Rep. Charles Owen, HB353 by Rep. Shane Mack, HB522 by Rep. Danny McCormick, HB568 by Rep. R. Dewith Carrier, and Senate Bill 73 by Sen. Mike Reese.

The wave of proposals comes amid mounting scrutiny of carbon infrastructure, particularly in light of a 2020 pipeline rupture in Satartia, Miss. that released a cloud of CO2 into a nearby town when a landslide hit, causing residents to collapse or suffer seizures from oxygen deprivation.

Industry leaders are pushing back.

“This is a business opportunity,” said Tommy Faucheux, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association. “If we lose that, the investments — and the jobs — will go elsewhere.”

“These CCS projects and the associated development could transform communities in ways they’ve never seen,” Faucheux said. “We’re talking about economic development in parts of Louisiana that haven’t traditionally benefited from the oil and gas footprint.”

“The industry has been spending a lot of time engaging with communities, with land owners,” he added. “The companies want to work and come to agreements with all the landowners. They want to have conversations about pipeline routes, for instance. The use of eminent domain has not been something we’ve prioritized or really led with. I think it has been really more the exception than the standard.”

 

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News from the South - North Carolina News Feed

Eradication of divisive medical education policies applauded | North Carolina

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-25 15:59:00

(The Center Square) – Eliminating policies in higher education that U.S. Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy believes are detrimental to the best in health care is a step in the right direction, the North Carolina Republican says.



U.S. Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy, R-N.C.




“I applaud the Trump administration for rooting out the discriminatory and demeaning requirements of DEI in medication education,” Murphy said, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion. “These practices reward political activism and not merit. Patients deserve better.

“Liberal apologists played with patient’s lives to push a progressive discriminatory agenda. Doctors need to be selected as the brightest and hardest working, not on identity politics.”

Murphy’s assessment came a day after President Donald Trump’s executive order entitled Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education.

The third graph of Section 2 reads in part, “The attorney general and the secretary of Education, in consultation with the secretary of Health and Human Services, shall investigate and take appropriate action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American medical schools or graduate medical education entities that is advanced by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education or the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or other accreditors of graduate medical education, including unlawful ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ requirements under the guise of accreditation standards.”

Murphy, a practicing urologist, has repeatedly chastised the medical schools promoting diversity policies over merit.

Earlier this month, he responded to a writing in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled “Advancing health equity in the climate crisis – A climate justice curriculum for resident physicians.” He said it was “yet another example of irresponsible leadership in medical education.”

Murphy opined, “Instead of learning to take care of patients, medical residents are studying this nonsense. No wonder the questions about NIH funding are being asked.”

The National Institutes of Health operates with a budget of $47 billion. For worldwide biomedical research, it is the largest public funder.

Murphy believes the American health care system “is killing the patient” with the middlemen, including the education component.

He’s also spoken out on the Association of American Medical Colleges, saying it has been “exposed for their racially divisive lies.” A significant infant-mortality study, The National Review reported, was edited to preserve racial perspective. The story says “researchers deliberately obscured a data point about white babies under the care of Black physicians because ‘it undermines the narrative.’”

“Falsifying research,” Murphy said, “is why Americans have lost trust in medical education. All those involved in this scandal need to resign.”

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Feds launch investigation into UC Berkeley for not reporting CCP funding | California

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www.thecentersquare.com – Kenneth Schrupp – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-25 14:45:00

(The Center Square) – The United States Department of Education announced it is investigating the University of California, Berkeley for not reporting significant funding from the Chinese government.

“The Biden-Harris Administration turned a blind eye to colleges and universities’ legal obligations by deprioritizing oversight and allowing foreign gifts to pour onto American campuses,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “I have great confidence in my Office of General Counsel to investigate these matters fully, and they will begin by thoroughly examining U.C. Berkeley’s apparent failure to fully and accurately disclose significant funding received from foreign sources.” 

A 2023 House of Representatives investigation found Berkeley violated Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, which requires disclosure of foreign funding over $250,000, saying Chinese funding of American research institutions facilitates transfer of American-funded technology with military applications to the Chinese government.

“U.S.-Chinese joint education institutes like U.C. Berkeley’s partnership with Tsinghua University, and the University of Pittsburgh’s partnership with Sichuan University, serve as conduits for transferring critical U.S. technologies and expertise to China, including to entities linked to China’s defense machine and the security apparatus it uses to facilitate human rights abuses,” said Select Committee on the CCP in a report. 

At the time, Berkeley told the committee that it is “relinquishing all ownership” in the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute. 

It also cited a Trump administration executive order directing the DOE to launch Section 117 investigations to secure compliance with reporting requirements that must be followed to continue receiving federal grant funding. 

In its announcement last week of a similar Section 117 investigation into Harvard University, DOE noted, “Noncompliance risks Department of Justice enforcement, including civil actions, or loss of federal funding eligibility.” 

The Department of Education says that “Berkeley’s responses revealed a fundamental misunderstanding regarding its Section 117 reporting obligations” in justifying its renewed investigation.

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