Despite an $11.8 billion unfunded liability owed by more than 300 Arizona municipalities, counties and state agencies, some encouraging trends are emerging in the system that provides pensions for nearly 60,000 retired first responders, corrections officers and qualifying elected officials.
Shaped in part by the unexpected surge in revenue many of those government entities have seen for nearly a year, those trends aren’t just good news for the retirees who receive pensions from the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System.
They’re also good news for West Valley and other taxpayers.
One trend involves the largely unflagging health of the stock market that — combined with some astute investment decisions by PSPRS — produced an unaudited return of close to 25% on investments for the agency’s pension funds.