Pension Plan

The City of College Station participates as one of 900 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 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):	70% of CPI Non-retroactive Repeating

Employees Covered by Benefit Terms

At the December 31, 2024, valuation and measurement date, the following employees were covered by the benefit terms:

Employees Covered by Benefit Terms
Inactive employees or beneficiaries currently receiving benefits	642
Inactive employees entitled to but not yet receiving benefits	720
Active employees	994
Total	2,356

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 ACFR, located here.

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 ACFR.  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	$78,703,664

Funding Valuation (Smoothed Value)	12/31/2024		GASB 68 Valuation (Market Value)	12/31/2024
Total Actuarial Accrued Liability	$436,478,662		Total Pension Liability	$436,478,662
Actuarial Value of Assets	$385,841,256		Plan Fiduciary Net Position	$395,999,833
Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liability (UAAL)	$50,637,406		Net Pension Liability (NPL)	$40,478,829
Funded Ratio	88.4%		Funded Ratio	90.7%
UAAL as a percentage of covered payroll	64.3%		NPL as a percentage of covered payroll	51.4%

Pension Actuarial Accrued Liability Data.xlsx  -  26.06 KB

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 13.02% and 13.05% in calendar years 2025 and 2024.