City of College Station

PENSION PLAN

The City of College Station participates as one of 887 plans in the multi-employer, nontraditional, joint contributory, hybrid defined benefit pension plan administered by the Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS). In a multiple-employer defined benefit pension plan, each municipality pension is administered and governed by state but the each municipality are responsible for their assets and liabilities. College Station's plan provides the following benefits to its employees:

BENEFITS PROVIDED

TMRS provides retirement, disability, and death benefits. Benefit provisions are adopted by the governing body of the city, within the options available in the state statutes governing TMRS. A summary of plan provisions for the city are as follows:

Employee Deposit Rate:                  7% of Pay
Matching Ratio:                                    2 to 1
Vesting of Benefits:                             5 years
Service Retirement Eligibility:          20 years at any age, 5 years at age 60 and above
Updated Service Credit:                     75% Repeating Transfers
Annuity Increases (to retirees):        50% of CPI Repeating

EMPLOYEES COVERED BY BENEFIT TERMS
At the Dec. 31, 2020 valuation and measurement date, the following employees were covered by the benefit terms:

Employee Deposit Rate                                                                                    7% of Pay
Inactive employees or beneficiaries currently receiving benefits:          529 
Inactive employees entitled to but not yet receiving benefits:                611
Active employees:                                                                                                 912
Total:                                                                                                                         2,052

PENSION SUMMARY

Pension commitments made by the City of College Station to its employees and funding the commitments to date, is determined by understanding 1) investments (management of the assets/TMRS responsibility), 2) actuarial valuations (calculation of the cost of benefits earned to date/TMRS responsibility) and 3) funding (the city's commitment to make contributions to fund the benefits earned to date/city responsibility).

If the projected rate of return is not earned, assets will be less than expected and the city will have to make up the deficit through an increased contribution rate.

Additional information on actuarial policies including valuations and experiences studies validating assumptions used can also be found at the site above. If the actuarial assumptions used are unrealistic, the actual liabilities could be higher than projected and the city would be required to make up the difference through increased contributions.

Our commitment and funded status for the pension liabilities is provided on this page and in the city's Annual Financial Report. 

TMRS employs two separate actuarial valuations: 1) a funding valuation to calculate the city's actuarially determined contribution and 2) the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB 68) valuation which is used for financial reporting purposes and is reported in the city's CAFR. The primary difference between the two valuations, is that the funding valuation uses a smoothed actuarial value of assets and the GASB 68 valuation utilizes fiduciary net position based on a market value of assets on the reporting date.

- Equivalent Single Amortization Period:       25 years
- Covered Payroll:                                                 $59,793,441

Pension Actuarial Accrued Liability Data.xlsx  -  14KB

CONTRIBUTIONS

Employees for the City of College Station were required to contribute 7% of their annual gross earnings during the fiscal years. The contribution rates for the City of College Station are 13% for 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018 calendar years.

Pension ADC TCR Data.xlsx  -  12 KB

INVESTMENTS

TMRS strategies and results are available in their Annual Comprehensive Financial Report in the investment section at tmrs.com/publications.php.

TMRS Assumed Rate of Return = 6.75%

Pension Additions Deductions.xlsx  -  13 KB

Pension Funded Percentage Data.xlsx  -  11 KB

The graph above demonstrates the City of College Station funding percentages in excess of 75% for the last 10 years. The Funding Valuation is defined as actuarial value of assets divided by the total actuarially accrued liability. Funding Percentage could vary from year to year, due to numerous factors including investment returns, actual experience and changing assumptions.

CROSS REFERENCE LINKS

• Plan Provision Chosen  -  PDF  |  pages 100-101
• Schedule of Changes in Fiduciary Net Position 2021  -  PDF  |  page 26
  
• Schedule of Changes in Fiduciary Net Position 2020  -  PDF  |  page 27
• Schedule of Changes in Fiduciary Net Position 2019  -  PDF  |  page 27
• Schedule of Changes in Fiduciary Net Position 2018  -  PDF  |  page 27
• Schedule of Changes in Fiduciary Net Position 2017  -  PDF  |  page 27
• TMRS - Actuarial Valuation Results 2021  -  PDF  |  page 21
• TMRS - Actuarial Valuation Results 2020  -  PDF  |  page 21
  
• TMRS - Actuarial Valuation Results 2019  -  PDF  |  page 21
• TMRS - Actuarial Valuation Results 2018  -  PDF  |  page 21
• TMRS - Actuarial Valuation Results 2017  -  PDF  |  page 21
• Texas Comptroller of Public Pension Search Tool
• Governmental Accounting Standards Board Pronouncements