Myths and Reality about MBTA Pensions by Iliya Atanasov For the past few years, officials from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and the MBTA Retirement Fund (MBTARF) have promoted the narrative that the T’s pension system has been reformed so that benefits are “fair” and it holds no risk for taxpayers. The truth is that MBTA pension reform has been too little too late; more radical measures are needed in order to ensure that current MBTA employees’ POLICY BRIEF pensions will be there when they retire. The purpose of this policy brief is to debunk the misconceptions around pension reform at the T and map out a simple, legal and fair path for change. All comparisons hereafter are based on the pension rules for the most recent cohorts of MBTA and state employees, who started working after 6 December and 2 April 2012, respectively. Specifically, the comparison is between the MBTA Retirement Plan (MBTARP), the T’s largest pension plan with an unfunded liability of $726 million as of yearend 2011, and Group 1 (Option A, where applicable) under the state retirement system, which is the largest group of Massachusetts employees with diverse job requirements eligible for a uniformly determined public pension. Myth 1: MBTA pensions are commensurate with other Massachusetts public employees’ Contrary to the myth, MBTA employees receive much higher allowances per year of pensionable service than other public employees. At the T, effective provisions to prevent spiking (short-term raises or cashing in unused vacation days that would dramatically increase pension benefits with about the same level of overall contributions) have simply not been implemented. Under the current pension contract, MBTARP retirees receive a membership service allowance equal to 2.46 percent of the average compensation in those three (3) years in which the employee had maximum compensation, multiplied by the number of years of membership service...1