The Next Big Tax Threat Is Coming From Your State Capital

Originally published by Fox Digital

If you are one of the millions of people celebrating the trimming of federal fat, you’ll want to know that a new taxpayer threat of stunning proportions is rising, fast. This time it’s not coming from Washington, D.C.; it’s coming from your state capital.

A $1.3 trillion pension crisis is barreling toward American taxpayers, and common-sense solutions are being actively ignored. The most likely result: You will no sooner enjoy the federal tax and spending breaks of the Trump years than you will be forced to bail out state employee pension funds, which are insolvent after having been mismanaged for decades. Unless urgent reforms are made, your state property tax tab will increase by a percentage that one shudders to calculate.

My own state of Ohio is, regrettably, at the center of this crisis. According to a new report by the nonpartisan Equable Institute, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS) is between $20 and $30 billion in debt and will be unable to fully pay back the teachers who funded it throughout their careers. Equable also noted in its report that a stunning 44% of unfunded liabilities are from underperforming investments.

To read the full article, click here.