“Shortfall” –  a clever term for “we’ve lost your money”

According to the Hawaii Free Press quoting the Honolulu Star Advertiser: 

“The two public funds designed to meet the future pension and health care needs of government employees and retirees are a combined $25 billion in the hole with a growing shortfall….

The deficit in the ERS pension fund rose to $12.93 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30 from $12.44 billion in the previous fiscal year, according to one of the reports. The funded ratio — what is needed to meet future obligations — improved slightly to 54.9 percent from 54.7 percent a year earlier….

Similarly, the EUTF shortfall for all employers rose to $12.15 billion in fiscal 2017 from $11.78 billion in fiscal 2015, the last year it was reported. Its funded ratio improved to 12.8 percent from 6.7 percent because the cost of health care didn’t grow as fast as had been anticipated and because employers made more contributions to pay down the unfunded liability than required. The EUTF report has been coming out every two years but will be switching to an annual format…

The pension fund, which had a market value of $15.7 billion in assets as of June 30, provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to 122,079 active, retired and vested former state, city and county employees. The reduced 7 percent investment target that the ERS fund uses now matches its annualized investment return for the fund over the past 15 years…

Gabriel Roeder Smith projects it will take 26 years, or until June 30, 2043, for the pension fund to become whole because employers began increasing their percentage of contributions of an employee’s pay starting on July 1.

The increases will be phased in over four years for general, police and fire employees. Also playing catch-up will be the EUTF, which provides medical, chiropractic, prescription drug, dental, vision and life insurance benefits to nearly 200,000 state, city and county employees, retirees and dependents….”

Read … State public funds’ shortfall hits $25B

Hawaii is not alone: read ...The Sucker Punch 
And see: The Securitization Debacle – A U.S. Pension Shortfall: $3.4 Trillion+ [$3,400,000,000,000].
See also: “This Is Going To Be A National Crisis” – One Of The Largest U.S. Pension Funds Set To Cut Retiree Benefits