1. How many people are getting Metro Nashville pensions, and what are the largest payments?
A: Payouts were $205 million in 2023, so they’ve gone up $4 million in one year.
There are almost 10,000 people on the pension rolls — about the same as the year before — including almost 50 people who retired 40 years ago or longer.
The average annual pension is a modest $21,000.
While that may seem low, keep in mind these are going to people who are older, many have paid off their mortgages, and may have other income like other savings and retirement accounts AND some may still work other jobs.
There were 61 people who got pensions for $75,000 or higher last year.
The three largest pensions continue to go to former police officers — Michael Robinson collects over $187,000 and Eric Snyder collects $139,000.
2. How well are Nashville’s pensions funded compared to other cities and states?
A: Many other states have underfunded pension systems
In fact, across the country, only 71% of pension promises have been funded. So 29% of what states need to pay pensions, isn’t saved.
Nashville’s pensions are through the Tennessee Retirement System, which paid $2.5 billion to about 154,000 retirees across the state, so Nashville’s $209 million to 10,000 is a small portion of that. We’ll talk about that in a future week.
But the Tennessee system is doing quite well.
Tennessee, along with Wisconsin and South Dakota, are held up as the best public pension systems.