A new issue brief from the Center for State and Local Government Excellence, Locally-Administered Pension Plans,2007-2011, finds that, despite having a better track record of paying the annual required contribution, locally-administered pension plans have not yet caught up with the funded levels of state-administered plans.

Written by Alicia H. Munnell , Jean-Pierre Aubry , and Joshua Hurwitzof the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, the brief's key findings include:

• 2011 data show that locally-administered pension plans continue to be slightly less funded than state-run plans – 72 percent vs. 76 percent.
• This result is puzzling because local plan sponsors generally pay a larger share of their annual required contribution than state plan sponsors.
• The explanation is that state plans have historically earned higher returns because they invest more in risky assets.
• For mature plans with substantial assets, higher returns more than offset lower contributions.
• During the financial crisis, though, local plans were able to narrow the funding gap because their less risky portfolios fared better.

Read the full brief at http://slge.org/publications/locally-administered-pension-plans-2007-2011