Questions About Public Pension Plans
Open records laws should help uncover pension information. Photo by Liang Shi/KUT NewsTexas Comptroller Susan Combs says there are “warning signs” for some of the Texas’ public pension plans. A report out today from her office singles out the city of Houston in particular.
Combs says the state’s biggest pension funds, the Employee Retirement System of Texas and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, are stable. But her efforts to do a comprehensive assessment, she says, were stymied by a lack of information.
“What we found very interesting was how hard it was to get information from various pension plans,” Combs said. “Even when we sent them all open-records requests, a very large number, nearly 30, did not respond as they’re required to under the open-records law.”
Combs says the Legislature supports making the records readily available and hopes the information will be available online by June.
