@LDAHL
I totally agree with your observation that the Wisconsin Retirement System is fully funded. The "downside" to that is the shared risk aspect, a brilliant concept of Gary Gates, who is talked about in the linked article below. Unlike other states where there tends to be a defined benefit for pensioners which cannot be cut, come hell or high water, annuitants in the WRS may find their "dividends" cut by the fund if the stock market lays an egg, or if the longevity of participants is greater than actuaries have predicted.
Furthermore the adjustments in the WRS benefits do not require the approval of any politician. The unfunded pension liabilities in other states (and many municipalities) got "that way", because politicians looked to civic employees for support at election time. Politicians could privately (or publicly) make promises to civic employees, on the basis of ludicrous assumptions about returns on pensions. Extremely generous pensions for police and first responders, and what-the-hell, school superintendents <wink>, could be provided in all the contracts for these employees.
By the time the pension fund is insolvent, it will be other politicians who will be in office … . The temptation to kick the can down the road has been irresistible.
Mind you, the Wisconsin Retirement System may yet have its downfall, if the Governor in concert with the Legislature succeeds (with the approval of the State Supreme Court some day) in treating the WRS as a cookie jar for state government finance. Employees and annuitants cannot be complacent. The one-and-only state retirement system that has been independent from politicians may yet be forced to make loans to the state of Wisconsin (cough up!). It is not only a matter of Wisconsinites being "lucky". They have been "wary" too.
http://projects.jsonline.com/news/20...of-a-kind.html