Zachary Christensen
Managing Director, Pension Integrity Project, Reason Foundation
Zachary Christensen is a Managing Director of Reason Foundation's Pension Integrity Project.
Christensen’s work with Reason's Pension Integrity Project aims to promote solvent, sustainable retirement systems that provide retirement security for government workers while reducing long term costs for taxpayers and employees. Zachary and his team provides education, reform policy options, and actuarial analysis for policymakers and stakeholders to help them design reform proposals that are practical and viable.
The Pension Integrity Project has provided technical assistance to several successful pension reform efforts in recent years, including in Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, South Carolina, Texas and other states tackling persistent pension solvency challenges.
Christensen has contributed to in-depth solvency analysis of the Arizona PSPRS, Arkansas TRS, Louisiana TRSL, Texas ERS, and Texas TRS pension plans.
Christensen's work has been published in the Los Angeles Daily News, Orange County Register, NJ.com, Colorado Politics, and many other publications. He has also been featured in the Carolina Journal and the Michigan Capitol Confidential. His research has been published by the Hoover Institution, The Platte Institute, Texas Public Policy Foundation, and Rio Grande Foundation.
Prior to joining Reason Foundation, Christensen was a pension finance analyst at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where he worked on widely-cited research on the funding status and accounting methods for public sector retirement systems.
Christensen holds an M.S. in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and a B.S. in Political Science from Brigham Young University.
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Examining the City of Mesa and How Pension Debt Drives Rising Costs for Arizona Municipal Governments
The city’s total payments to ASRS and PSPRS have skyrocketed from less than $4 million per year in 2001 to more than $57 million in 2018.
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Examining Coconino County and How Pension Debt Drives Rising Costs for Arizona Municipal Governments
Coconino County’s total payments to ASRS and PSPRS have skyrocketed from about $0.8 million per year in 2001 to more than $13 million in 2018.
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Examining Maricopa County and How Pension Debt Drives Rising Costs for Arizona Municipal Governments
The county’s total payments to ASRS and PSPRS have skyrocketed from about $10 million per year in 2001 to more than $142 million in 2018.
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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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Pension Reform Newsletter: California’s Risk, Reforms for New Mexico, Arizona’s Credit Upgrade, and More
Plus: Why millennials should worry about public pension debt, how overly optimistic investment return assumptions are hurting Florida, and the latest on Louisiana's pension system for teachers.
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More Pension Debt Revealed As Florida Lowers Assumed Rate of Return to More Realistic Levels
Missing the mark on investment return assumptions has added $17 billion to the Florida Retirement System's unfunded liability over the past decade.
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Pension Funds Should Focus on Funding Retirement Benefits, Not Politics
Pension boards prioritizing social change do a disservice to the workers expecting pensions and to the taxpayers responsible for unfunded pension debt.
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Pension Reform Newsletter
Bad investment return news for Texas and other states, why pension systems should avoid politically-motivated divestment policies, and more.
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More Steps Needed to Stabilize Colorado’s State Pension Fund
The pension plan has less than 60 percent of the money it needs to pay for the benefits that have already been promised to public workers.
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Pension Reform Newsletter — September 2019
Analysis of proposed New Mexico PERA reforms, four things Florida’s pension system needs to fix, the impact of negative interest rates, and more.
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Pension Reform Newsletter — August 2019
The Florida Retirement System needs additional reforms, cost-of-living adjustments, examining pension underfunding in Arkansas, and more.
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Pension Reform Newsletter — July 2019
More reforms in Michigan, evaluating Oregon’s new pension legislation, New Mexico financial experts warn of pension risk, and more.
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Pension Reform Newsletter — June 2019
Public pension issues disproportionately affect women, the debate over pension debt and government spending in Kansas, and more.
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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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Sweeney Proposal Would Help Secure New Jersey Pensions
Despite criticism from some unions, the reform proposal would ensure that retirement promises made to public workers are kept.
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Texas Teacher Pension Funding Bill Passes, But More Still Needs to Be Done
The legislature created the conditions needed to issue teachers an overdue cost of living payment, but fell short of addressing the systemic reforms needed to make such benefit increases more consistent for retirees.
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Pension Reform Newsletter — May 2019
Leveraging public assets for pension solvency, Arizona pensions seeing little reward for major risk taking, and more.
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New Jersey Senate President Rolls Out Important Path to Pension Reform Progress
The reform appears to be a bold and creative way to slow the growth of pension costs while still keeping the retirement promises made to public workers.
