Just starting to collect information on Ingham County, and not with any plan or purpose. Mostly related to stories I'm working on.

 

Labor contracts: Corrections, Deputies

 

Actuarial valuation reports

 

	As of December 31	1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011,
		2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

 

Pension funding history

 

Pensions are funded from 3 sources: earnings on investments, member contributions and payments from the county. The amounts the county is required to pay are determined by the actuarial valuations. Payments are made at the end of the year, after the actuarial valuations come out.

 

The source of the following is a section in the actuarial valuation called "Historical Funding Progress."

 

Ingham County
As of December 31:	Actuarial Value of Assets	Actuarial Accrued Liability	Percentage Funded	Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liability
1987	54,072,938	39,645,235	136%	(14,427,703)
1988	57,889,961	44,776,267	129%	(13,113,694)
1989	64,949,909	52,525,297	124%	(12,424,612)
1990	71,084,865	61,520,840	116%	(9,564,025)
1991	79,736,359	69,567,734	115%	(10,168,625)
1992	50,968,120	47,237,433	108%	(3,730,687)
1993	52,687,283	66,392,574	79%	13,705,291
1994	56,238,777	82,445,154	68%	26,206,377
1995	62,529,929	91,267,612	69%	28,737,683
1996	70,095,587	100,596,375	70%	30,500,788
1997	83,334,248	113,279,199	74%	29,944,951
1998	95,427,165	129,697,752	74%	34,270,587
1999	111,156,340	137,512,089	81%	26,355,749
2000	123,308,414	152,754,990	81%	29,446,576
2001	133,055,221	165,645,014	80%	32,589,793
2002	138,299,599	183,747,506	75%	45,447,907
2003	150,287,493	199,547,894	75%	49,260,401
2004	162,405,350	215,946,290	75%	53,540,940
2005	173,502,595	228,698,783	76%	55,196,188
2006	187,358,412	243,300,405	77%	55,941,993
2007	202,178,200	260,328,809	78%	58,150,609
2008	210,089,101	277,233,448	76%	67,144,347
2009	219,217,266	288,190,459	76%	68,973,193
2010	227,832,071	304,134,483	75%	76,302,412
2011	235,277,224	322,746,120	73%	87,468,896
2012	268,351,332	370,727,362	72%	102,376,030
2013	277,757,426	386,573,382	72%	108,815,956
2014	287,500,232	406,282,243	71%	118,782,011
2015	296,091,358	447,961,301	66%	151,869,943
2016	303,682,816	458,447,084	66%	154,764,268

 

As explained on pages 5-6 of the 2015 actuarial valuation report, 3% of the 5% drop in pension funding between 2014 and 2015 was due to changes in actuarial assumptions. "The new actuarial assumptions changed your December 31, 2015 percent funded from 69% to 66%, a change of -3%," it says. Kara Hope, chairperson of the Ingham County Board of Commissioners, addressed this in a 9/14/2016 opinion in the Lansing State Journal.

 

Benefit plan provision enhancements for Sheriff Supervisors

 

The history of retirement benefit plan provisions for Sheriff Supervisors goes at least as far back to the the 1950s, but here we will start with 7/1/1993 (the service requirement and member contribution rate shown for 7/1/1993 were in effect before then). Benefit provision history is in the latest actuarial valuation report and the current FOP contract.

	7/1/1993	7/1/1994	1/1/1995	10/1/1997
Multiplier	2.25% (B-3)		2.5% (B-4)	3.2%
FAC Period	5		3
Service	Age 50 w/25 Age 55 w/15		25 and out
Member Contribution Rate	6.40%	5.40%	10.45%	19.61%
	MERS benefit plan definitions are on page 4 of this document and page 2 of this one.

Sheriff Supervisors hired on or after January 1, 2013 are enrolled in a "hybrid" pension plan consisting of a defined benefit (DB) component with a 1.5% multiplier and a defined contribution (DC) component:

(1)	DB Component - The county pays the full cost of the defined benefit component which includes a 1.5% multiplier. Employees can retire at age 55 with 25 years of service.
(2)	DC Component - Employees contribute in an amount of their choice but no less than 2% of the base wage. The county contributes an amount equal to 1% of the employee's base wage.

 

 

 

 

Computed Employer Contributions to the Retirement System for Sheriff Supervisors: Percent of Payroll Source: actuarial valuation reports
Year beginning January 1:	Normal Cost	Unfunded Accrued Liability	Total
1999	(1.72%)	19.50%	17.78%
2000	(1.49%)	21.36%	19.86%
2001	(1.59%)	19.62%	18.03%
2002	(2.48%)	22.32%	19.84%
2003	(1.97%)	22.04%	20.07%
2004	(1.98%)	23.50%	21.52%
2005	(2.02)%	24.45%	22.43%
2006	(1.28)%	23.78%	22.50%
2007	(1.28)%	26.03%	24.75%
2008	(1.12)%	26.66%	25.54%
2009	(1.13)%	28.42%	27.29%
2010	(0.38)%	34.12%	33.74%
2011	(0.23)%	37.12%	36.89%
2012	(0.08)%	42.92%	42.84%
2013	0.34%	49.00%	49.34%
2014	0.30%	62.66%	62.96%

 

Actuarial valuation reports show no employer contributions as percentage of payroll after 2014. Controller Tim Dolehanty explained this to me as follows:

Once the Hybrid plan went into effect and the defined benefit divisions were closed, the County discontinued the practice of making contributions based on a percentage of pay and began paying a flat amount per month/per division.  For internal reporting, the Budget office converts the flat amount to an estimated percentage of pay for accounting purposes.

 

 

	Actuarial Accrued Liabilities and Valuation Assets: Sheriff Supervisors
	As of December 31	Actuarial Accrued Liability	Valuation Assets	Percent Funded	Unfunded Accrued Liabilities
	1996	5,580,320	2,451,365	43.9%	3,128,955
	1997	7,500,646	1,713,485	22.7%	5,787,161
	1998	15,615,485	10,545,481	67.5%	5,070,004
	1999	16,445,973	12,017,979	73.1%	4,427,994
	2000	18,553,446	13,284,268	71.1%	5.269.178
	2001	18,969,820	13,829,148	72.9%	5,140,672
	2002	22,500,406	13,895,054	61.8%	8,605,352
	2003	20,923,964	14,274,611	68.2%	6,649,353
	2004	22,077,293	14,719,106	66.7%	7,358,187
	2005	23,473,175	15,171,559	64.6%	8,301,616
	2006	27,308,500	15,778,647	57.8%	11,529,853
	2007	28,963,782	16,785,897	58.0%	12,177,885
	2008	30,598,492	17,036,017	55.7%	13,562,475
	2009	30,521,311	16,616,645	54.4%	13,904,666
	2010	31,808,099	16,641,633	52.3%	15,166,466
	2011	32,687,429	16,411,528	50.2%	16,275,901
	2012	34,314,880	16,367,240	47.7%	17,947,640
	2013	35,226,002	16,160,200	45.9%	19,065,802
	2014	36,961,016	16,418,633	44.4%	20,542,383
	2015	40,413,041	16,474,840	40.8%	23,938,201
	2016	41,308,935	16,432,312	39.8%	24,876,623