A close inspection of New York City's pension records shows that the funds committed to the plans may fall well short of the city's promises to hundreds of thousands of current and retired workers. They look fully funded chiefly because the city has been using an unusual pension calculation that does not comply with accepted government accounting rules. Even the city's chief actuary, who helps produce the annual reports, says the official numbers are "meaningless" when it comes to showing the plans' financial health.
See "New York Gets Sobering Look at Its Pensions", Mary Williams Walsh and Michael Cooper, The New York Times, August 20, 2006