Published: October 01, 2008 11:15 pm            

State treasurer, director say Miss. PERS is stable

JACKSON (AP) — Investments held by the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System have lost more than 10 percent of their value in the turbulent financial markets the past three months.

But the executive director, Pat Robertson, says the fund is ‘‘financially sound’’ and members have no reason to worry about their pensions.

Robertson told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Mississippi PERS has assets of $17.6 billion — an unaudited figure that was the most recent information available. When the previous budget year ended on June 30, the system had assets of $19.7 billion.

That’s a drop of $2.1 billion.

Robertson said PERS has received calls from workers and retirees concerned about how the recent stock-market losses will affect their pocketbooks. Robertson said retirees are guaranteed a certain package of benefits, regardless of how the economy performs.

‘‘I think everyone’s concerned about the market right now on a day-to-day basis,’’ she said.

State Treasurer Tate Reeves, in a separate interview, said Mississippi PERS and the state’s health care trust fund and two college savings programs ‘‘are the definition of long-term investors’’ and can withstand short-term losses. Reeves is chairman of the board for all the programs.

Robertson said Mississippi PERS has lost money only three years since it started investing in the stock market in the early 1980s. The losses came during the budget years that ended in June 2001, 2002 and 2008.

About 165,000 workers are paying into the system, and about 78,000 retirees are receiving benefits.

Robertson said if Mississippi PERS has another significant loss on investments in the year that ends June 30, 2009, ‘‘there could be some pressure to increase the employer contribution rate.’’

That means PERS trustees would ask lawmakers to put more tax dollars into state agencies’ budgets so the agencies could route the money to PERS. Robertson said a request for more tax money, if needed, would be made for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2010.

‘‘You would not see any increase prior to that time,’’ she said.

Robertson also said ‘‘it would be unlikely’’ that employees would be asked to pay more into the system to cover losses.

Mississippi PERS covers all nonfederal public employees in the state. That includes people who work for state, county and city governments; universities; fire departments and law-enforcement agencies.

‘‘Pensions & Investments’’ newspaper published a list in January of the largest corporate and public pension funds in the United States, ranked by the value of assets held as of Sept. 30, 2007. The California Public Employees Retirement System was the largest. Mississippi PERS was number 62 on the list, just behind JPMorgan Chase & Co., and just ahead of Chevron Corp.

The volatility of the financial markets might have changed those rankings.

Reeves said the stock market had significant losses after the Russian ruble crisis in the 1990s, after the bubble burst on technology stocks earlier this decade and after the terrorist attacks in 2001.

‘‘If you look over time, the ingenuity of the American economy and the ability of the American workers to recover those losses has occurred each and every time,’’ Reeves said. ‘‘I would envision that would be the case now.’’

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On the Net:

Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System: http://www.pers.state.ms.us



AP-CS-10-01-08 1739EDT

        

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