After July first, nineteen hundred forty, membership in any pension or retirement system of the state or of a civil division thereof shall be a contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired. (New. Adopted by Constitutional Convention of 1938 and approved by vote of the people November 8, 1938.)
The safety of your pension is guaranteed by the above clause in the NYS Constitution, No mayor or governor has anything to do with your pension allocation. There are five public employee pension systems in New York City, ours is the Teacher Retirement System, referred to as TRC-NYC. The TRS Board consists of three members elected by contributors, aka, active employees, and four others, representatives of the PEP, the Comptroller and the Mayor,
The TRS Board meetings are live-streamed and archived, a Business and an Investment Meeting each month, you can watch the March Meetings here.
I wish my coop board was as transparent.
Pension contributions are a significant cost to the city,
NYC pension costs are roughly 11% of the city’s total budget, consuming approximately 17% of city tax revenues. These costs are significant, exceeding 80 cents of every dollar raised by the city’s personal income tax. Total pension payments from the NYC Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS) reached $6.05 billion in 2024.
- Total Pension Expense: As of FY 2026, roughly $6 billion of the city’s $10.5 billion total pension expense is associated with prior obligations.
- Asset Management: The city manages roughly $294.6 billion in assets across five main retirement systems for teachers, police, fire, and other city staff.
- Future Outlook: Pension costs are projected to remain a high percentage of the budget, with a significant shift expected after FY 2032 when certain amortization schedules conclude.
The Boards of the of the five city pension systems invest the city contribution in a wide range of instruments, the link to the TRS-NYC Investment Meeting above includes a summary of the percent increase in investments, which was significant.
A NY Times article set off a flurry of posts, “Keep Mamdani’s hands off my pension,” Not to worry, the state constitution protects us.
… affordable housing projects that have been financed in the past several years with money from New York City’s public pension funds, which provide retirement benefits for the city’s police officers, teachers, firefighters and more.
The city has five separate pension funds, totaling around $320 billion in assets. In addition to investing in real estate across the city and around the world, the funds invest in stocks, bonds and private equity. Pension funds are essentially required to make investments that maximize income, making affordable developments an unlikely fit. But that might be changing. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released the results of a survey in 2024 that found pension funds in recent years had increased investments in affordable housing, in part because it could be more stable over the long term than market-rate housing.
In his presser Comptroller Levine writes,
The NYC Housing Investment Initiative will more than double the size of the Big Apple’s five public pension funds’ housing investment exposure. As of the end of 2025, the system’s residential portfolio totaled approximately $2.8 billion. These investments are spread across a diverse range of housing types and programs, including the PPAR program, the AFL-CIO HIT, the RBC Capital Access program, multi-family housing, student and senior housing, and more.
The Comptroller’s Office oversees the five pension funds’ investments in housing and real estate. The program is aimed at achieving strong returns for members and beneficiaries while preserving and expanding the City’s housing supply stock. Since the early 90s, these investments have helped to create or preserve 199,000 units of housing. Since inception, the pension funds’ Economically Targeted Investments portfolio has exceeded the actuarial rate of return requirement.
Back in the 50s and 60s program Mitchell-Lama housing program created over 100,000 units of affordable housing, the new investments are similar.
I put in my two cents, maybe one cent, and suggested affordable housing for teachers, maybe my “suggestion” will resonate, don’t know if you don’t try.
Bottom Line: Our pensions are guaranteed by the state constitution and pension fund investments are closely, very closely monitored and since investments in housing get us the same or better returns, why not, and maybe building affordable housing in the city for teachers – a ‘win-win.”
Ed in the Apple: Blogging on the Intersection of Education and Politics Title 