MISS CODE ANN. Section 25-11-101 (1972) requires the PEER Committee to conduct actuarial evaluations of the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) and report to the Legislature on PERS’s financial soundness. PEER contracted with the actuarial firm of Bryan Pendleton Swats & McAllister to review PERS’s financial position and benefit provisions.
PEER’s actuary concluded that the Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (PERS’s) current benefit formula does not encourage employees with twenty-five or more years of covered service to defer retirement and continue public employment. In fact, under certain circumstances, the early retirement subsidy is greater than the value of benefits accrued for continued covered employment under PERS.
PERS’s present benefit formula provides retirement income which is reasonably protected against the effects of inflation. PERS has benefited from a "bull" stock market, which appears to be the byproduct of the system’s diversified portfolio. Because of such diversification, short-term investment losses caused by downturns in the stock market should not have a long-term impact on the funded status of the system.
As noted in PEER’s 1998 report on PERS, the amortization period of the unfunded actuarial accrued liability is not an appropriate measure of the funded status of the retirement system. Both the benefit provisions and financing of PERS are maturing. Thus PERS should emphasize measures of its funding progress which reflect the maturing of the system.