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Funding Guidelines

Introduction

The importance of properly financing state and local government retirement systems has never been greater. Sound pension funding policies not only help ensure costs and benefits remain sustainable, but also strengthen the financial position and credit rating of the sponsoring governments.
 

Co-Signers

National Governors Association
National Conference of State Legislatures
The Council of State Governments
National Association of Counties
National League of Cities
The U.S. Conference of Mayors
International City/County Management Association
Center for State and Local Government Excellence
National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers
Government Finance Officers Association
National Council on Teacher Retirement
National Association of State Retirement Administrators

One-page overview

June 2013

Download Overview
 

Guidelines

March 2013

Download Guidelines

Contact

Jeannine Markoe Raymond, Director of Federal Relations
Keith Brainard, Research Director
 

Additional Resources


Become A Member

Becoming a member of NASRA offers a unique opportunity to join a community committed to the sound, efficient, and innovative stewardship of public retirement systems. Membership connects you with a network of professionals and experts, providing valuable insights into managing public retirement systems with a focus on sustainability and risk-averse strategies.

By joining NASRA, you gain the tools and resources to enhance the management of public retirement systems, ensuring their long-term success and reliability for generations to come.

What's New at NASRA: Government Spending Issue Brief

NASRA’s March 2026 update on government spending makes a basic but important point: public pension benefits are not paid out of a government’s day-to-day operating budget. They are paid from trust funds that employees and employers contribute to during an employee’s working years. Those trusts distribute more than $400 billion each year to retirees and beneficiaries in communities across the country. On a national basis, employer contributions to pension trusts in FY 2023 equaled 5.16 percent of direct general spending by state and local governments, which shows that pension contributions remain a limited share of overall public spending even though the level varies from one state to another. 
The brief also shows that pension costs should be viewed in the context of the changes governments have made over the past 15 years to strengthen plan funding. Following the 2008–09 market decline, nearly every state and many local governments adjusted contributions, benefits, or both to improve pension sustainability. More recent data show that employer contributions increased from FY 2022 to FY 2023, but pension spending as a share of total government spending remained broadly stable. The updated brief provides FY 2023 figures and also projects the aggregate pension spending rate for FY 2024, offering a useful snapshot of both current costs and the longer funding trend.