“Better than it was” or “it could be worse”. That’s about what one could say regarding the latest numbers from the City of Pittsburgh’s pension trust fund. At 55% funded, that puts Pittsburgh in the “moderately distressed” category from Act 44 of 2009. The last official funded ratio with PERC (December 2014) was 58%. There are 27 municipalities that had a “severely distressed” rating, and thus are worse off than Pittsburgh. In terms of big cities in PA, Pittsburgh is in the same range of funding ratio as York and Allentown. Over 800 municipalities were given a “not distressed” score in 2014.
The chart from the City pension board’s valuation report from January 2013 (see chart 3 on page 25) the aggregate funding ratio rose from 34% in 2009 to 58% four years later, prodded on by the changes mandated in Act 44. More recently, the October 2015 statement showed a funding ratio of 56.8% for the three pension plans.
