State Pension Fund Drops 26%

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced today that the NY State pension fund fell 26.3%, with its value now $109.9 billion. The global economic crisis contributed to the decline, and Crain's New York reports, "It isn’t clear what percentage of the decline is due to souring private equity investments, but the fund had about $11 billion worth of such investments and $4.5 billion of “absolute return” investments—also known as hedge funds—according to the previous fiscal year’s annual report. That’s about double the amount held in 2005." However, DiNapoli also said the pension fund is "built to survive even the most challenging investing environments. For example, the Fund saw the value of its assets decline by about $30 billion in the markets that followed the dot-com bust and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, only to see steady recovery in the subsequent years." However, in order to meet future retirement obligations, employers and taxpayers will give greater contributions.