Census Bureau Pension Data for 2014 and 2015: Not Usable Thanks to NYC

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its “individual unit” state and local government pension fund data for FY 2014 and FY 2015, and based on past practice I probably would have used it to update my databases, produce a bunch of charts, and write a post or two. But comparing these years with the years preceding, it seems that the data has been trashed. This is something I feared after union-backed Comptroller Stringer’s election, reformed sinner actuary Robert North’s departure, and the imposition of somewhat stricter reporting requirements by the Government Accounting Standards Board, which show more clearly just how underfunded public employee pension funds are.

The new problem is in the Census Bureau data for the NYC Teachers Retirement System, joining the problem I had already found in data for the NYC police retirement system. I learned in government to never assume a conspiracy when a foul up is an equally credible explanation. Whatever the cause, however, if a fix is to be made the Census Bureau nonetheless will not be updating the 2014 and 2015 public employee data until the 2016 data is released next year. So I’ll probably wait to write about NY and NJ public employee pensions again until then.

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Public Employee Pensions In NY and NJ: 2013 Data (and Commentary on NYC Comptroller Stringer’s Deceptions, Etc.)

This is a “give the people what they want” post. After recently completing two analyses of public employee pensions for 50 states over 20 and 40 years, I’m not really up to do another one. And yet I find that the database of Census Bureau data I compiled on the individual public employee pension funds in New York and New Jersey, and the related posts I wrote, a year and 20 months ago are still among the most read and downloaded on “Saying the Unsaid in New York,” according to WordPress.

The Bureau has released data for FY 2013, and I have appended it to the database I compiled previously. And updated the charts for New York City, New York State and New Jersey teacher pension funds, the New Jersey and New York City police and fire pension funds, and the funds for other employees in New York City, New York State and New Jersey. These are linked below. I’m not going to write another three posts on this data – there aren’t enough changes from year-to-year to make it worthwhile. But I do plan to comment on some items that have come out (or not come out) in the news over the past year. Because every year, ordinary people and younger generations get robbed in NYC via public employee pensions. Just like on Wall Street.