For the full article read this New York Times article url below entitled How to Cheat a Retirement Fund

Government accounting rules enable states and cities to dramatically underfund their public pension systems. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/opinion/11kramer.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

How well have you planned for the fact that this will cause you to pay more taxes in all states you live or operate in?

Think back to when you did not cause the problem and yet you had to clean up? It is happening again.

The magnitude of this is that most experts agree that almost all state and local government units are bankrupt Experts suggest the promises to employees unions and their allies must be dealt with.

This liability has been concealed due to the pressure that was placed on the accounting profession to allow governments to continue cooking the books by ignoring the real costs of pension and healthcare commitments and pushing away the day when this bill became visible.

Even now governments do not want to admit the extent of these unfunded liabilities.  (Check into the recent SEC rebuke of the state of New Jersey financing disclosures.) Nor do they want you to know how much of accumulated governmental borrowings were made to finance prior payments into those employee benefits, when taxes did not cover promised benefits.

Regardless of intent, motive etc, the point is that your state and local taxes will have to increase dramatically in future years to pay off these unfunded and previously unrecognized liabilities.  Have you factored this inevitable higher tax rates and expenses into your ongoing 3 to 5 year business plans?