New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said he will propose full-funding for the state's pension system for a fourth consecutive fiscal year starting July 1.
The governor provided no details for his brief comment while delivering his annual state of the state message Jan. 9. The governor typically presents his budget proposal to the state legislature in late February or early March. The legislature must approve a budget before the end of the current fiscal year on June 30.
This fiscal year's payment of $7.1 billion represents the full actuarially determined contribution. The payment is a combination of state revenues and proceeds from the state lottery, which has been an asset for pension system funding for several years.
The pension payment counts on approximately $1 billion annually from the lottery. For the first five months of the fiscal year, lottery proceeds were $483.3 million, down from the $490.5 million for the year-ago period, according to state financial data.
Prior to the full-funding during the last three fiscal years, the last time the state contributed 100% of its actuarially determined contribution to the pension system was 1996.
The New Jersey Pension Fund, Trenton, had $88.8 billion in assets according to the latest available data.
