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Report: Mississippi’s pension system faces serious financial headwinds | Mississippi

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Steve Wilson | The Center Square – 2023-05-24 11:09:00

(The Center Square) — An annual report by the state’s legislative watchdog committee warns that Mississippi’s public defined benefit pension system is facing serious financial and demographic challenges.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, better known as the PEER Committee, released its annual review of the Public Employee’s Retirement System of Mississippi, which is the pension fund for the vast majority of state, county and municipal employees.

According to the report, the plan is expected to be only 48.6% fully funded by 2047, a significant drop from the optimistic 93.5% predicted by the 2021 projections. The plan’s funding ratio, which is defined as the share of future obligations covered by current assets, has been 61.3% for the last two years.

In fiscal 2022, the plan’s investments lost 8.45% after amassing a near-record 32.71% in 2021.

The report echoed the data released in the fund’s comprehensive annual report, which is usually released in December.

One issue is flagging investment returns. The retirement system’s board of directors voted in 2021 to decrease the expected rate of return from 7.75% to 7%, which staff uses for planning purposes. It’s the second time in the past decade the governing board has acted after lowering the expectation from an unrealistic 8% in 2015.

The plan’s funding policy, which requires enough excess returns above expectations to lower the assumed rate of return, has only allowed the rate to be reduced to 7.55%, which PEER says is problematic.

“The PERS Board’s choice to utilize this methodology could continue to be a cause of concern,” the report says. “Selection of this methodology has delayed implementation of the assumption reduction and exacerbated the plan’s lower-than-projected investment returns.”

The report also says the plan’s demographics are also an issue as a decreasing number of contributing employees support an ever-growing number of retirees. The plan’s ratio of active members to retirees declined from 1.81:1 in FY 2012 to 1.24:1 in FY 2022, or approximately 31.49%.

The report also said the plan’s assumptions on pay increases for contributing employees, which affects the amount of benefits they’ll receive in retirement, are overly optimistic, which can affect the plan’s bottom line. The projected annual rate of wage increase is 2.65% and while increases from fiscal 2022 were above that figure, the annual payroll increase in the last decade was 0.98%.

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News from the South - North Carolina News Feed

Jackson joins lawsuit against Trump tied to 14th Amendment | North Carolina

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – 2025-01-21 14:42:00

SUMMARY: North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson has joined a lawsuit against President Trump’s executive order regarding birthright citizenship, calling it a violation of the 14th Amendment. He argues that the Constitution’s language is clear and not open to reinterpretation, and the order undermines rights for children born in the U.S. Other Democratic attorneys general from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Nevada are also involved in the lawsuit, despite their states voting Republican in the last presidential election. The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, includes eighteen states as plaintiffs against Trump and various agency leaders.

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News from the South - Texas News Feed

Trump declares invasion at southwest border, suspends entry | National

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor – 2025-01-21 14:23:00

SUMMARY: President Donald Trump has officially declared an “invasion” at the U.S. southern border, issuing a proclamation to suspend entry and repel this invasion. This historic move follows similar declarations by 55 Texas counties and a formal opinion from Arizona’s former attorney general validating states’ rights to self-defense under the Constitution. Trump asserts that the federal government has failed to uphold its constitutional obligation to protect states from invasion. His proclamation, effective January 20, allows for the suspension of entry for individuals deemed part of this invasion, emphasizing the need for health and background checks and authorizing federal action to remove these individuals.

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News from the South - Louisiana News Feed

Antisemitism on college campuses targeted by new legislation | National

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Thérèse Boudreaux | The Center Square – 2025-01-21 14:11:00

SUMMARY: A bipartisan bill, the Protecting Students on Campus Act, has been reintroduced by Senators Bill Cassidy and John Fetterman to protect Jewish students from harassment on college campuses. It would require universities to communicate civil rights complaint procedures, report the number of complaints received, and disclose actions taken. The bill comes in response to rising antisemitism, with reports showing 25% of Jewish students feeling unsafe on campus in 2023. Endorsed by the AJC and ADL, the bill seeks to improve transparency, hold universities accountable, and provide a safer learning environment for students, especially following the October 7 Hamas attack.

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