75 Percent Funded, 100 Percent Spun
Fox45 wants you worried about Maryland's pension system. “Developing now,” their chyron blared Friday: the retirement system “does not have enough funds to cover future payouts.” Jeremy Portnoy of Open the Books joined to warn about the impact on taxpayers. The number at the center of it: roughly three-quarters funded.
Here's the thing about the number. It's real.
The Maryland State Retirement and Pension System's own actuarial reports put the funded ratio in the mid-70s — 73.4 percent in the latest valuation cycle. Nobody cooked the books. Sinclair found a genuine report with a genuine number.
Now here's what Sinclair didn't put in the chyron.
Three-quarters funded describes most public pensions in America. It's below the 80 percent rule of thumb, sure — but the direction matters more than the snapshot, and the direction is up: 69.7 percent in 2015, climbing steadily since. And the most recent year was a barnburner: a 13.19 percent investment return for fiscal 2026 against a 6.8 percent target, on an $82 billion fund.
“Does not have enough funds to cover future payouts” is true of every pension under 100 percent funded. Describing a 75-percent-funded, strongly performing, $82 billion system as a developing crisis is a choice — a framing choice, not a math choice.
The people running it
State Treasurer Dereck Davis chairs the system's Board of Trustees, with Comptroller Brooke Lierman as vice-chair. The agency's day-to-day leader right now is Jonathan D. Martin, serving as Acting Executive Director — succeeding Martin Noven — while the board hires a permanent chief. That's orderly succession, not turmoil: an acting hand on the tiller, a search underway, a board chair making sure people have the picture.
I know, because Davis called me. He wasn't spinning. He was confident — the way he gets when the numbers are on his side — and the numbers are on his side.
The pattern
Now the context Sinclair won't give you. The owner of Fox45 and the Baltimore Sun is David Smith. Smith is currently suing Gov. Wes Moore for defamation over Moore's claim that Smith was “invested in by Jeffrey Epstein.” This week Sinclair's outlets also pushed a story about a Pentagon “law enforcement inquiry” into Moore's Bronze Star records. And now: “Maryland's pension system lacks funds amid stability questions.”
Maybe that's all coincidence — a news organization aggressively covering a governor it happens to be suing. Or maybe, when the governor publicly ties your owner to Jeffrey Epstein, the pension system's actuarial tables suddenly become developing news. I know what it looks like to me. I'll let you decide what it looks like to you.
What the village needs to know
Two things, stripped of spin. One: the pension is about 75 percent funded, improving, and coming off a 13 percent return year — the opposite of a crisis. Anyone advising clients on Maryland's fiscal health should have the real number, not the chyron. Two: the Retirement Agency is in a leadership transition, with Martin holding the acting role and a permanent hire coming. Names change; the math doesn't.
The lesson isn't that 75 percent is perfect. It isn't. The lesson is older than Annapolis: when somebody finds a report and builds a crisis out of it, ask who found it — and what they left on the cutting-room floor.