Battle Creek Times

Michigan’s 100 largest municipalities are carrying more than $5.5 billion in unfunded pension liability, a nonprofit research and educational institute found in a recent update of its pension system health map for the state.

"To make good on this debt, every resident in those municipalities would have to pay $1,048," Mackinac Center for Public Policy said in an announcement about its updated map issued last month. "These unfunded liabilities represent the difference between the costs of the pensions municipalities have promised their retirees and how much these entities have actually saved to fund them."

Delaying those costs puts retirees' pensions at risk and pushes higher costs out of the pockets of future taxpayers, the announcement said.

The largest municipalities on the map include Flint, with more than $346 million in pension liability, of which only 36 percent is funded; Lincoln Park with more than $88 million in pension liability and only 27 percent funded; and Hamtramck with more than $54 million in pension liability and only 44 percent funded.