JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – The Mississippi Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) is $26 billion in the hole. According to state leaders, PERS has racked up this debt from decisions made by lawmakers in the late 1980s.

In 1998, the Mississippi Legislature PEER Committee released a study. It did not recommend increasing funding or additional staff, but lawmakers promised additional benefits without a funding plan to pay for the benefits.

There are more than 368,000 members in PERS, which includes current employees, retirees and employees who used to work in PERS but haven’t retired yet. Of those, more than 267,000 employees currently work or receive retirement benefits.

Some of the jobs include teachers, police officers, firefighters, social workers and sanitation workers.

“Even if you’re not a member of PERS, if you’re a citizen of Mississippi, your everyday life is affected significantly by a PERS member,” said Ray Higgins, executive director of PERS.

PERS’ latest data showed in June 2024 that more than 120,000 were receiving retirement benefits. That year alone, PERS paid out $3.2 billion in total retirement benefits.

“In the late 90s and early 2000, there were some additional benefits placed into law without additional funding at the time. Also, in the two subsequent decades, we had a declining active to retiree ratio, meaning there were fewer active PERS covered members paying into the system and more retirees coming onto the system and retirees living longer,” said Higgins.

State Senator Daniel Sparks (R-District 5) said the Legislature promising benefits without funding tracks back to the 1980s.

“Partly because we had low paid state employees over the years. I’m sure that was the Legislature of the late 80s, thought that was the thing to do. Then into the 90s, we added the 3% compounded COLA in ’99, which again was not funded,” said Sparks.

But it doesn’t stop in the 90s.

“Then we went into the dot com bubble. We, in ‘08, had the financial crisis. These are the things that pushed us into the large liability position,” Sparks stated.

According to PERS, the money for these investments comes from employees paying 9% of their compensation, and the employer paying more than 18%. Now, lawmakers are having to figure out how to stop the debt from climbing.

“Any time you give a benefit, and you don’t pay for it today, it’s like buying it on a credit card. You’re eventually going to have to pay the bill. And those decisions in the 90s have left us a large bill in 2026,” said Sparks.

Lawmakers have met with the PERS Board and actuaries several times in recent weeks to figure out some realistic possibilities to pay down the $26 billion unfunded liability.