GERS Trustees Concerned With Rescue Shortfall

The Government Employees’ Retirement System Board of Trustees knows it must send out around $23 million in annuity checks each month, so on Thursday, board members asked, as they usually do at their monthly meeting, if enough money was coming in.

Board Member Andre Dorsey wanted to know if the government was resisting the board’s recent decision to raise the government’s contribution to the system by 3 percent. Angel Dawson, the GERS administrator, said he had not seen any and added that it did not matter because the system had the authority to raise the contribution level. Dawson said the 26.5 percent for employer contribution would go into effect at the beginning of 2025.

Dorsey said that the system had been wading into financially troubling waters since the plan for its rescue was based on receiving the rum cover-over funds at $13.25 per proof gallon, but the federal government was only approving $10.50. Dorsey said that actuaries were raising the possibility that GERS could be on the road to insolvency in 2037 or 2038. Delegate Stacey Plaskett had recommended that rescue plan calculations be based on the lower proof gallon rate, but they weren’t.