By Liz Farmer
Public pension managers are gearing up for another battle against what they say would be costly — and unnecessary — accounting disclosure requirements being floated on Capitol Hill even as new disclosure rules take effect this summer.
If introduced, the bill, the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act (PEPTA), would ask state and local governments to file annual reports with the Treasury Department disclosing how they calculate their unfunded pension liabilities. The measure would require governments to use a so-called “riskless rate of return” pegged to a Treasury rate of 4 to 5 percent, instead of the more widely used 7 to 8 percent. While not mandatory per se, governments that don’t participate would not get to issue municipal bonds as tax-free.
