Leonard Gilroy
Vice President of Government Reform, Reason Foundation
Leonard Gilroy is Vice President of Government Reform at Reason Foundation and Senior Managing Director of Reason's Pension Integrity Project.
Under Gilroy's leadership, the Pension Integrity Project at Reason Foundation assists policymakers and other stakeholders in designing, analyzing and implementing public sector pension reforms. The project aims to promote solvent, sustainable retirement systems that provide retirement security for government workers while reducing taxpayer and pension system exposure to financial risk and reducing long-term costs for employers/taxpayers and employees. The project team provides education, reform policy options, and actuarial analysis for policymakers and stakeholders to help them design reform proposals that are practical and viable.
Gilroy and the Pension Integrity Project have provided technical assistance to several successful pension reform efforts in recent years in Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, South Carolina and other states aimed at tackling persistent pension solvency challenges.
In his role as vice president, Gilroy also leads Reason's government reform efforts, with over 18 years of experience researching fiscal management, government operations, infrastructure public-private partnerships, government contracting, and urban policy topics. He also regularly consults with federal, state and local officials on ways to improve government performance and efficiency.
Gilroy has a diversified background in policy research and implementation, with particular emphasis on competition, government efficiency, transparency, accountability, and government performance. Gilroy has testified before Congress on several occasions and has testified on pension reform before the Arizona, Florida, Michigan, and Texas legislatures. Gilroy works closely with state and local elected officials across the country in efforts to design and implement market-based policy approaches, improve government performance, enhance accountability in government programs, and reduce government spending.
Gilroy's articles have been featured in such leading publications as The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, The Weekly Standard, Washington Times, Houston Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Arizona Republic, San Francisco Examiner, San Diego Union-Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Sacramento Bee, and The Salt Lake Tribune. He has also appeared on CNN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business, CNBC, National Public Radio and other media outlets.
Prior to joining Reason, Gilroy was a senior planner at a Louisiana-based urban planning consulting firm. He also worked as a research assistant at the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech. Gilroy earned a B.A. and M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Tech.
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PERA’s Redesigned COLA Provides Retirees Inflation Protection and Improved Sustainability
Senate Bill 72 aligns the New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association’s benefit adjustments with other fully-funded state pension plans and provides robust protections for retirees against inflation.
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Key Stakeholders Agree It’s Time to Reform the New Mexico’s Largest Public Pension System
The proposed reforms to PERA are a great first step toward addressing the debt currently looming over the state budget.
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North Carolina Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System: A Pension Solvency Analysis
Better risk management and more realistic plan assumptions can help ensure the state delivers the promised retirement benefits to its employees.
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Proposed New Mexico PERA Board Restructuring Would Improve Expertise, Balance Representation Long-Term
The proposed legislation offers the promise of improving the experience and oversight capabilities of the Public Employees Retirement Association's governing board.
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Modernizing Arizona’s Pension Policy
Testimony to the Arizona Senate Finance Committee on Arizona Senate Bill 1280, which is part of the state's effort to modernize pension policy and tackle underfunding.
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Redesigning Cost of Living Adjustments Would Improve PERA Sustainability
The Public Employees Retirement Association Pension Solvency Task Force projects PERA currently has only a 38 percent chance of reaching full funding by 2043.
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Why PERA Being Only 71 Percent Funded Is Not Enough
The New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association has at least $6.1 billion in pension debt and potentially more if its current actuarial assumptions are too aggressive, which is likely.
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Why New Mexico Needs to Reform the Public Employees Retirement Association Now
The proposed reforms would be a meaningful step toward strengthening PERA while putting as little stress on members and taxpayers as possible.
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PAYGO Is the Most Costly Way to Fund a Public Retirement System and Would Be Bad for New Mexico
Pensions are meant to be prefunded so that current taxpayers and current public employees share the costs of those workers’ benefits.
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California’s Pension Systems Need To Continue Lowering Return Expectations and Reducing Risk
CalPERS achieved an investment return of 6.7 percent during the latest fiscal year, and similarly, CalSTRS saw a 6.8 percent net return, both short of the 7 percent benchmark established by their managing boards.
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Credit Rating Upgrade Doesn’t Clear Arizona of its Pension Problems
The state has $27 billion in unfunded pension liabilities today in its four major pension plans.
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New Mexico Needs Pension Reforms, Shared Sacrifice to Pay for Promised Retirement Benefits
The changes should provide $700 million in immediate savings and are projected to eliminate over $6 billion in unfunded liabilities.
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Public Pension Plan Designs Are the Problem, Not Pensions Themselves
If you build a pension system with risk management in mind, you can avoid the common pitfalls that have led to the over $1 trillion in U.S. public pension debt.
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Analysis of the New Mexico PERA Pension Solvency Task Force’s Preliminary Recommendations
The changes are significant and positive steps for PERA, but leave some systemic challenges—namely actuarial methods and assumptions—unaddressed.
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Continuing Reform: Challenges Persist With the Florida Retirement System (FRS)
The retirement benefits ultimately received by members of both plans within FRS will come at an ever-increasing cost to taxpayers and other public services if needed technical adjustments to both plans go neglected.
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Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) Pension Solvency Analysis
Investment returns failing to meet unrealistic expectations has been the largest contributor to the unfunded liability growth, adding $4.2 billion to the unfunded liability since 2000.
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Arizona Pension Bonuses Are Troubling. But Risky Investments Are The Real Crime
The bonuses raise important questions about what should really be ringing alarm bells.
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Webinar: Leveraging Public Assets for Pension Solvency
State and local governments facing pension solvency challenges are exploring the transfer, lease or sale of public assets to shore up underfunded retiree benefit systems.
