The growing pension costs faced by the State of New York might be offset by a plan put forth by the state comptroller. The comptroller has announced that he will ask the Legislature to permit a larger share of state pension assets to be placed in less-traditional investments. The fund?s assets are now $153.9 billion, making it the third-largest pension plan in the country, though the number is down slightly from a value of $154.5 billion in the previous fiscal year, meaning that even though the fund performed well, its gains were not enough to keep up with the growing number of retirees who are drawing pensions. The number of retired state workers rose 2.3 percent from the last fiscal year, and is expected to continue rising.
See "State Comptroller Has an Idea for Increasing Growth in New York?s Pension Fund", Jeremy W. Peters, The New York Times, August 4, 2008