Public Debt Incurred in Your Name

May 31, 2017

Unfunded accrued actuarial liability (UAAL) is the amount by which a state or local government has come up short in pre-funding retirement benefits. Governments are encouraged to make payments on this shortfall as rapidly as possible so that the shortfall is eliminated and benefits are 100% funded. And then payments are made to keep them funded.

Pensions and "other post-employment benefits," or OPEB, are funded separately, probably because pre-funding of OPEB was not required by the State of Michigan until 2012. OPEB are mostly retiree health insurance.

I've attempted below to show the UAAL per Lansing resident and Lansing household. That would be the total debt the State of Michigan, the County of Ingham and the City of Lansing have incurred in your name, if you are a Lansing resident. Included are links to documents and the page numbers in those documents where the figures are found. For example, clicking on State Employees (SERS) will take you to the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for SERS. The UAAL for pensions is on page 99 and the UAAL for OPEB is on page 48.

* The latest bi-annual actuarial reports for OPEB are to be released in June.

"Per person" and "Per household" amounts were calculated from population and household numbers from the US Census:

If you have any questions or corrections, call or text me at 517-505-2696 or email me at stevenrharry@gmail.com.