How in the world might a transportation bill feed our retirement crisis? Congress is sneaking a harmful pension change that could lead to massive underfunding of our largest plans

Using fair-market valuation, Nevada PERS’ unfunded liabilities would rise from about $10 billion to almost $41 billion. Shifting PERS to a defined-contribution, 401(k)-type structure would ensure that benefit obligations are fully funded going forward and that everyone is clear regarding the pensions promises the government has made and its ability to fulfill them.

Market-based measures of public pensions funding may better informstate governments and taxpayers of the liabilities and risks they face.

If Washington pension plans were judged by the standards that private-sector pensions are required to follow, they would face unfunded liabilities exceeding $50 billion. The costs of truly fully funding public-employee pensions could swamp the state budget, and at more than $20,000 per household, taxpayers too.

Public pension accounting standards encourage state and local governments to promise too much, fund too little and take too much risk with their investments.

When a benefit liability must be paid with 100 percent certainty, a plan should be considered "fully funded" only when it is capable of paying it with 100 percent certainty. Market valuation satisfies this criterion, while current accounting standards do not.

Shortfalls in public pensions for state government employees are underestimated, with actual underfunding of more than $3 trillion.

An analysis of why current public sector pension accounting standards understate liabilities and encourage excessive risk-taking