California Government Pension Plans Top List of Revenues and Expenditures
State and Local Government Employee-Retirement System data released by the U.S. Census Bureau places the total amount of money invested in state and local government pension plans at over $350 billion for the 2004-2005 fiscal year.
With combined receipts of over $76 billion from state and local government pension plans, California posted the highest retirement system revenues, followed by New York at $29 billion, and Texas at $22 billion. Vermont’s $362 million came in at the bottom of the list.
On the expenditures side, California, New York and Texas, respectively, topped the list as well, with total payments of nearly $26 billion for California. The District of Columbia had the lowest payout number, just $38 million.
In California, over 2.1 million current and former employees have a stake in one of the state’s 61 retirement systems – the highest number of participants of any state.
Who’s moving … and why?
Roughly one-fifth of people who moved last year did so because of a new job or a job transfer, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which recently released its Geographic Mobility data for 2004-2005.
Of the nation’s 287 million residents over the age of one, roughly 23 million people moved within the same county, while nearly 7.9 million moved to a different county within the same state, and 3.4 million moved across state lines.
The data reveals the largest region-to-region moves from the Northeast to the South, followed by the Midwest to the South.
The Census Bureau provides detailed statistics about which segments of population – broken down by race, sex, age, and region of the country – had a change of address over the course of the year. The data can be downloaded into spreadsheet format for further manipulation and analysis.