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Investments
Slowly but surely, the Fund is recovering from one
of the worst global recessions in modern history.
The recovery is attributable, in large part, to our strategy of long-term investing through broad asset diversification. This strategy has helped the Fund maintain its position as one of the strongest in the nation. In fact, just this past February, the Pew
Center on the States released a report recognizing the New York State Common Retirement Fund as a “solid performer” and one of the best-funded retirement plans in the U.S.
While challenges remain, our long-term strategy
of diversification and value investing has the Fund well positioned to benefit from the recovering
global economy. In the past year, the Fund returned 25.9 percent.

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Major Initiatives
Since taking office in 2007, I have worked diligently to ensure that the management of the Fund is above reproach. In 2008, I banned all placement agents, paid intermediaries and registered lobbyists from involvement in Fund investments.
Some of the other reforms I’ve implemented to strengthen the Fund’s oversight and increase transparency include releasing monthly investment transaction reports; publicly disclosing the Fund’s performance on a quarterly, rather than annual
basis, reinforcing the internal investment evaluation process to include reviews by the heads of all asset classes and expanding external advisory committees to enhance the review of investment procedures
and decisions.
I also issued an executive order last September prohibiting the Fund from doing business with any investment adviser who has made a political contribution to the State Comptroller or a candidate for State Comptroller. The ban, which mirrors proposed Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations, is yet another step toward safeguarding the

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Despite the effects of a global recession that gripped both the country and
New York State for the past two years, we have held tight to our purpose: providing excellent service to our members and pensioners, strengthening our partnership with our participating employers and above all, ensuring the integrity
of the Common Retirement Fund.
More than one million members, retirees and beneficiaries depend on us. When they turn to us for assistance, we want them to find us responsive to their needs. They should be well-informed about their benefits and have access to tools and resources that will enable them to plan for a secure retirement.
Our 3,000 plus employer partners are crucial to our work. The information they provide to us forms the basis for their employees’ benefits. It is essential that we have a strong working relationship.
What follows is a summary of our efforts during the past fiscal year.

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Planning for the Future
Our ultimate goal is to be an efficient, customer-focused Retirement System. Toward that end, we have started to convert our millions of paper documents to electronic files and index them. The use of electronic files and documents will prevent information from degrading, provide greater security for the sensitive information contained in these files and form an important foundation for our work in the future. In addition, we continue to identify ways to improve the quality of the data we store in our computers. Since data is the backbone of any information system, it is absolutely critical that our data be accurate, consistent and complete.

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More Service Retirements
As the number of retirees continues to climb —
we now have 375,803 retirees representing 36 percent of total membership — we naturally experienced a corresponding rise in service retirement applications. We received 1,613 retirement applications in December
2009 and 20,228 for the year. The only years in which we received more retirement applications were 1995 (21,553) and 2002 (24,371). BC&DS staff really stepped up, processing 8.3 percent more applications in calendar year 2009 than the year before.

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In mid-July 2009, we launched our online Post-Retirement Reporting (PRR) program, which allows school districts and Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) to comply with the reporting requirements established by Section 217 of the Retirement and Social Security Law (RSSL)electronically. This program enables school districts and BOCES to provide notification when a retiree earns more than the Section 212 limit, which is currently $30,000, as well as annually report all public retirees (including independent contractors/consultants) on an employer’s payroll during the previous calendar year.
In order to better educate employers about member-

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Tier 3 & Tier 4 Benefits Extended
Chapter 79 (Laws of 2009) extends the right of public employees and public employers to negotiate for retirement benefits not requiring approval by act of the legislature, and also extends certain temporary benefits and supplementation programs (Tiers 3 and 4) until July 1, 2011.

Quoted from ditcher

One Solution not mentioned here are the   non traditional options ,homeschoolers, unschoolers, are two very good options.
Most of them pay there share of the tax burden and get nothing in return.
After meeting many of these families, and they are a diverse population, I see they have a grand idea.
Instead of the system fighting against them, maybe some co- operation would work.
Maybe some of the PHD's can come up with a cost effective plan where parents can take resposibility for their own offspring.
Much of our trouble with "big government" comes from owr own self serving demand for imagined rights.
After looking over some of the CAFR reports that are difficult to locate it is obvious that teachers unions are in great shape as writtine in the report
They have 80 billion in assets, not bad,  so whats the trouble? 1200 bucks per season to "educate" some one.
Look up CAFR reports and TRF retirement funds, they list all the off budget items and you will see that collectively government owns about everything.
Now if a Retirement fund can be managed effectivly.  And be sustainable why do we not apply the same management to taxpayer funded enterprises?

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Overall membership in the System is 1,055,020. This includes 679,217 members and 375,803 retirees and beneficiaries. Both of these numbers continue to climb, with the number of retirees increasing more quickly than members. For example, in 1991, retirees represented 27 percent of the System’s members. By FY 2010,
that number had increased to approximately 36 percent.
The value of the pension fund’s net assets at the end of the fiscal year was
$134.2 billion.
Benefit payments continue to rise, reflecting increases in final average salaries over the past decades, cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) payments and benefit improvements enacted over the years. For example, in 2000, benefit payments were approaching $3.72 billion, while this year’s payments totaled more than
$7.6 billion.

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R
etirees in New York State
Of the 375,803 retirees and beneficiaries in the System, 290,979 (77 percent) remain New York State residents. As such, benefit payments surpassing
$5.9 billion this year alone reach the State’s communities and businesses, representing the System’s greatest impact on the State’s economy

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System benefits are established under the provisions of the New York State Retirement and Social Security Law (RSSL) and are guaranteed by the New York State (the State) Constitution. Once a public employer elects to participate in the System, the election is irrevocable. The System cannot
be terminated and plan benefits cannot be diminished or impaired. Benefits can be reduced for future members only by an act of the State Legislature.

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Post-Retirement Benefit Increases 　(7) —
A cost-of-living adjustment is provided to:
(i) all pensioners who have attained age 62 and have been retired for 5 years;
(ii) all pensioners who have attained age 55 and have been retired for ten years;
(iii) all disability pensioners, regardless of age, who have been retired for five years; and (iv) ERS recipients of an accidental death benefit, regardless of age, who have been receiving such benefit for five years. This cost-of-living adjustment is a percentage of the annual retirement benefit of the eligible member as computed on a base benefit amount not to exceed $18,000 of the annual retirement benefit. The cost of living percentage shall be 50% of the annual Consumer Price Index as published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor, but cannot exceed 3%.

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Federal Income Tax Status8.
Management believes that the System meets the definition of a governmental plan. In the System’s communications with the Internal Revenue Service, it has been treated as a qualified plan, and is, therefore, considered exempt from federal income taxes