BISMARCK North Dakota is one of only six states that has at least 30 years' worth of funding for its retired public employees' health benefits.
Nationwide, the 50 states' pension plans "are in relatively good shape," according to a Pew Charitable Trust study released Tuesday. But other benefits the states have promised, such as retiree health care, life insurance and dental care plans, called "nonpension" benefits, are in collectively rough shape, the study found.
None of the five largest states California, Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois have put aside any money for those promised benefits, the Pew study found.
The five others along with North Dakota that have fully funded nonpension obligations into the long term future are Arizona, Ohio, Oregon, Utah and Wisconsin.
Kathy Allen, benefits program manager at the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System, was pleased to see the North Dakota fund commended in the Pew report and said the North Dakota's good fortune is largely because of "the nature of how it was set up."
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The 1989 Legislature created the benefit, and public employers have been paying into the fund since then, Allen said.
Nationally, the price tag for retired state employees' nonpension benefits totals about $381 billion, Pew said, and 97 percent of the funds needed for the next 30 years have not been set aside. The price tag is higher if teachers and other local government workers are counted.
Cole reports for Forum Communications Co., which owns the Herald.
