NM’s (nearly) 10,000 PERA pension millionaires

The Rio Grande strongly supports pension reforms in the form of SB 72 in the 2020 Legislature.  But, there are serious issues with the pension system including the level of benefits provided by the PERA system.

The following chart which is from PERA itself shows that 9,744 former New Mexico public employees will receive lifetime payouts in excess of $1 million. It is one thing for former government employees to be comfortable in retirement, but nearly 10,000 beneficiaries receiving over $1 million in lifetime benefits seems excessive.

Also, as the following document from PERA notes, there is a big problem with NOT acting right now to address the issues with the pension plan. We agree with their conclusion, SB 72 is a reasonable compromise.

The Brookings pension report cited above can be found here.