{"id":55665,"date":"2025-08-03T16:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/55665\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T16:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:17:11","slug":"easton-police-pensions-are-only-54-funded-audit-says-mayor-says-its-gotten-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/55665\/","title":{"rendered":"Easton police pensions are only 54% funded, audit says. Mayor says it\u2019s gotten better."},"content":{"rendered":"

Easton\u2019s police pension fund is only 53.7% funded, according to a state audit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The audit says the firefighter pension is at 67.6% funded and a third pension for officers and employees is funded at 60.8%.<\/p>\n

Plans funded between 50% and 69% are moderately distressed, according to the audit<\/a> released Tuesday, July 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are extremely concerned about the funded status of the plan,\u201d the audit says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said Thursday the pension funds have improved since the audit, which looked at the funds from Jan. 1, 2021, through Dec. 31, 2022.<\/p>\n

The funds are cumulatively over 70% funded now, which puts the city in the \u201cminimally distressed\u201d range of pensions funded at 70% to 89% of expected revenue, Panto said.<\/p>\n

Panto said the pension fund is getting a better return on its investments than it was three years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since we switched to Morgan Stanley, we\u2019re doing much better,\u201d Panto said.<\/p>\n

The city has struggled with its pension funds for years. In 2016, the state auditor warned the city it was veering toward \u201csevere distress,\u201d where pensions are funded below 50%.<\/p>\n

The mayor has long called for state aid to help balance pension funds. Other cities are in similar trouble. <\/p>\n

\u201cNearly a quarter of the pension plans in Pennsylvania are in some state of distress,\u201d state Auditor General DeFoor said<\/a> after his statewide audit.<\/p>\n

Easton is switching new employees into a Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System fund. That fund is near 100%, according to the state audit<\/a>. It\u2019s a hybrid pension-401(k). Its benefits aren\u2019t as lucrative as a standard pension, but it\u2019s more realistic for the city, Panto said.<\/p>\n

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Easton\u2019s police pension fund is only 53.7% funded, according to a state audit. The audit says the firefighter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-55665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}