NC Pension System One Of Nation's Best Funded

North Carolina is one of only four states to have funded its pension obligations over 95%. The latest report from the Pew Center on the States finds that most states are falling further behind in their contributions to public employee retirement funds. David Draine is senior researcher at the Center. He says North Carolina continues to put aside enough money to fund the vast majority of its $80 billion pension bill.

David Draine: In terms of retiree health benefits, the state does need to improve. They promised retirees about $34 billion and only funded 3% of that, and have fallen short in making their recommended contributions.

Draine says many states have only recently begun calculating their retiree health benefit obligations. The national funding average is higher than North Carolina's, but still only 8%.