I misspoke. It’s not funded in the sense of social security where the tax is static. Each state is different.
high salaries and double dipping is the main culprit. Pensions are suppose to help decrease tax liabilities over time via sound investing but obvious Mass don’t know what they’re doing and/or entrusted the wrong people to manage their fund.
Also, a lot of pension had funds invested in mortgage backed securities so I imagine billions were lost, which required new funds to be raised