Tag: economic impact

LACERA Pension Spending Boosts L.A. County Economy by More Than $2 Billion

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.yahoo.com/now/lacera-pension-spending-boosts-l-204600576.html

Excerpt:

The Los Angeles County Employee Retirement Association (LACERA) provides pension benefits to 73,385 pensioners nationwide, with more than 60,000 residing in California and more than 42,000 residing in Los Angeles County. The benefits those pensioners receive ripple throughout the economy, affecting various industries and job sectors. In 2021, these pensioners generated a total economic output of $2.7 billion and supported thousands of jobs in Los Angeles County, according to a report just released by Beacon Economics titled “Economic, Fiscal and Social Impacts of LACERA Pensioners.”

With retirement security becoming a pressing national issue, the report that LACERA commissioned found that defined benefit plans, such as those offered by LACERA, are more efficient, secure, and provide more value than defined contribution plans like 401(k)s in delivering sustainable retirement benefits. The pooled assets of a defined benefit plan offer superior financial protection compared to defined contribution plans, as they remove longevity risk, offer inflation protection, and provide death benefits while delivering a secure and steady income to the beneficiaries. The United States Census Bureau found that the nation’s rapidly aging population has seen a 31 percent increase in those aged 65 and older from 2011 to 2021.

Author(s): LACERA

Publication Date: 12 Dec 2022

Publication Site: Global newswire press release

Fortifying Main Street: The Economic Benefit of Public Pension Dollars in Small Towns and Rural America

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nirsonline.org/reports/mainstreet2022/

PDF: https://www.nirsonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/FINAL-compresses-fortifyingmainstreet2022_small-compressed.pdf

webinar:

Graphic:

Excerpt:

The report’s key findings are as follows:

  • Public pension benefit dollars represent between one and three percent of GDP on average in the 2,922 counties studied.
  • Rural counties have the highest percentages of their populations receiving public pension benefits.
  • Small town counties experience a greater relative impact in terms of both GDP and total personal income from pension benefit dollars than rural or metropolitan counties.
  • Rural counties see more of an impact in terms of personal income than metropolitan counties, while metropolitan counties and rural counties see an equivalent impact in terms of GDP.
  • Counties that contain state capitals are outliers from other metropolitan counties, likely because there is a greater density of public employees in these counties, most of whom remain in these counties in retirement.
  • On average, rural counties have lost population while small town counties and metropolitan counties have gained population in the period between 2000 and 2018, but the connection between population change and the relative impact of public pension benefit dollars is weak.

Author(s): Dan Doonan and Tyler Bond from NIRS, Nathan Chobo from Linea Solutions Inc.

Publication Date: July 2022

Publication Site: National Institute on Retirement Security