In short
How it works
- The plan: The county is part of the Texas County and District Retirement System. Each county picks its own benefits within state rules.1
- Who pays in: Workers pay 7% of their pay. The county pays a rate set each year by the plan’s experts. For 2024 and 2025 that rate was 16.05%.1
- What workers get: At retirement, a worker’s savings plus county credits are turned into a monthly check.1
The numbers
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| What the plan expects to owe county retirees (end of 2024) | $838.7 million |
| What the plan had saved for them | $746.8 million |
| Gap (what is not yet saved) | $92.0 million |
| Share saved | 89% |
| County payment, year ending Sept. 30, 2025 | $25.0 million |
| County payment as a share of payroll | 16.0% (it was 12.8% in 2016) |
Source: county annual financial report, pension tables.2
The share saved has moved up and down. It was 74% at the end of 2015, over 100% at the end of 2021 after a good year in the markets, and 89% at the end of 2024.2
The other side
- The gap depends on guesses. The plan guesses it will earn 7.6% a year. If it earned 1 point less, the gap would be about $220 million. If it earned 1 point more, there would be no gap.1
- The county has paid in full. Each year since 2016 the county paid at least what the plan asked for, except 2021, when it paid about $0.6 million less.2
- Costs have grown. The county’s yearly payment roughly doubled from 2016 to 2025, as the number of workers and their pay grew.2
- For comparison: the City of Leander’s plan for its workers was also about 89% funded at the end of 2024.
How other large counties compare
These counties use the same statewide plan. Each number is the share saved at the end of 2024, from each county’s own audit for the year ending Sept. 30, 2025.
| County | Share saved, end of 2024 |
|---|---|
| Collin | 111% |
| Bell | 99% |
| Fort Bend | 99% |
| Travis | 96% (our math) |
| Williamson | 89% |
- Williamson is lowest of these five. But each county picks its own benefits and pays its own rate, so the shares are not a like-for-like measure of saving.
- One good or bad year moves these numbers a lot. They are all from the same date, so the markets were the same for each.
- We could not check Hays County. Its website blocked our download.
Questions to ask
- How does the county compare its retirement funding with other large counties?
- Where does the county post the plan’s yearly report?
What you can do
- Ask your commissioner how the county plans for its yearly pension payment in the budget.
- Look at the pension tables near the back of the county’s annual financial report.
Changes to this page
- Nov. 2, 2026: Removed guesses about why the county’s share is lower.
- Nov. 2, 2026: Added questions to ask.
What we still don’t know
- How the county’s share saved compares with other large Texas counties. We did not check other counties for this page.
Numbers marked “our math” are our estimates, not official figures. The notes show the inputs and the steps.
Footnotes
-
Williamson County, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, year ended Sept. 30, 2025, notes on the Texas County and District Retirement System (contributions, 7.0% employee rate, 16.05% employer rate, 7.60% discount rate and the 1% sensitivity table). https://emma.msrb.org/P11938140.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6
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Same report, Required Supplementary Information, pages 74–75: changes in net pension liability (2015–2024) and schedule of employer contributions (2016–2025). https://emma.msrb.org/P11938140.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7
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FY2025 audited reports (year ended Sept. 30, 2025), Texas County and District Retirement System schedules, measurement date Dec. 31, 2024. Collin County: plan net position as a percentage of total pension liability 111.34%. https://eagenda.collincountytx.gov/docs/2026/CC/20260420_3198/59959_FY2025%20Annual%20Comprehensive%20Financial%20Report%203.30.26.pdf Fort Bend County: 98.84%. https://transparencydocs.fortbendcountytx.gov/Traditional_Finances/2025/FY2025%20ACFR.pdf Travis County, note NT-43: total pension liability $2,791,573,828 and fiduciary net position $2,668,913,933; our math: $2,668,913,933 ÷ $2,791,573,828 = 95.6%. https://tctransparency.traviscountytx.gov/Reports/FinancialDocuments/fy2025-acfr.pdf Bell County, ten-year pension schedule: 98.87% (total pension liability $409,310,502; fiduciary net position $404,677,934). https://cms3.revize.com/revize/bellcountytx/departments/auditor/docs/2025%20Issued%20ACFR%20Bell%20County%20Texas.pdf ↩