It could fund how much? Ending corporate subsidies could be a boon for public pensions

Before dismantling public pensions, a new report suggests recouping money lost through corporate subsidies

If Texas were to stop granting corporate subsidies, earnings would be enough to pay roughly 66.3 percent of the taxpayer cost required to fund retirement benefits for current public employees belonging to the main state-administered public pensions, according to a new report from Good Jobs First, a national policy resource center.

Not everyone is in agreement with the report's findings, however. Some trade associations and corporate development officers fear that ending corporate subsidies will damage Texas' reputation as a business-friendly state and ruin its economic standing.


Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Canton.

Interim charges announced for House Committee on Pensions

Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Canton, continues to head the state House of Representative's Committee on Pensions.

Flynn is among those named to the committee in the recently released Interim Committee Charges document released by House Speaker Joe Straus' office in October.

Retirement-for-all advocacy group hosts symposium; discusses issues concerning public pension systems

Texans for a Secure Retirement held its Fourth Annual Symposium Oct. 18 in Austin. The program highlighted issues concerning the state's public pension systems.

"Right now there's a lot of flak in the air about defined benefit pension systems," TSR Board Chair Louis Malfaro said during the event.

The TSR is a nonprofit retirement advocacy group made up of public employees and retirees. Malfaro told TSR members attending the symposium that it is up to them to educate the public, beneficiaries and state policymakers about pension issues and to serve as watchdogs of bad practices that undermine system plans.

Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund earns 12% in 2017 fiscal year, passes $4 billion in assets

The Houston Firefighters' Relief and Retirement Fund combined risk-minimization with macro- and microeconomic diversification strategies to achieve a 12 percent return in its 2017 fiscal year which ended June 30.

HFRRF earned $439,444,928 on its beginning net position of $3.729 billion on July 1, 2016. The pension ended FY 2017 with $4.025 billion, the first time in its 80-year history that it has exceeded the $4 billion marker .

About us

The Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems (TEXPERS) is a statewide voluntary non-profit association that provides education and legislative advisory services to the trustees, administrators, professional service providers and employee groups that manage the retirement money of police, firefighters, municipal and district employees in cities across Texas.

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